On Peasants into Frenchmen

This work is really important to understanding the formation of the French nation at the end of the 19th century, but it is outdated. Ultimately, his argument is that provincial patois prevented the countryside from developing, as the flow of information slowed down tremendously (because the peasants couldn’t speak French!). The French nation was created by three things: the railroad system, public schools, and universal conscription. The railroad connected rural hamlets and villages to the cities, French was taught in the schools, and French patriotism was solidified via military service. This is the crux of Weber’s argument, and it is convincing.

There are some claims that are unsubstantiated (for example, the claim that the European mind was the same until 1650, when it divided into high and low cultures until it came back together at the end of the 19th century). Moreover, he does not seem to have the analytical tools to look into the minds of the peasantry—that is something that cannot be done with empiricism alone. After all, peasants themselves did not leave behind any writings! Another problem is that Weber bombards the reader with provincial customs and habits without coherence. This is done to show how these customs transformed after national changes were implemented, but the volume of information makes the text overwhelming.

One interesting, and seemingly accurate, claim that he makes is that the formation of the French nation was a form of internal colonialism. While the violence of this task was nothing compared to that of places like Algeria and Indochina, this is one point that he gets quite right. However, it must be mentioned that colonialism turned people into subjects, while the process within the hexagon turned people into citizens. This distinction is critical.