La Censure des Livres Paris la Fin de l'Ancien Rgime (1750-1789) by Nicole Herrmann-

Mascard
Review by: Francis Acomb
The American Historical Review, Vol. 75, No. 2 (Dec., 1969), pp. 510-511
Published by: Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Historical Association
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1849752 .
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510 Reviews of Books
recordson its subjects;it did not impose upon them the identity card, which makes
one's individualitya matter of public record. It was the Revolutionof I789 that in-
troduced the modern trend with its certificatesof civism, the conquest of liberty
being thus attendedby a certainloss of privacy.
There were three categoriesof persons of whom the old regime did require a
recordedidentity: criminals,foreigners,and soldiers. The recordsof the soldiers are
of considerableimportancesince they representa body of nearly two million men
in the courseof the century.The basic personnelrecordsare composedof an extensive
but incompletecollectionof three thousandcontroles, or companyrosters,representing
various units from I7I6 to 1786. For each soldier there are usually entries indicating
place and date of birth, physicalappearance,and details of service.The collectionhas
only been readily accessiblesince its transferto the Army Historical Service in I95T.
Professor Corvisier has been both researcherand pathfinder in this little-known
source.Besidesdrawing from it an excellentmonograph,he has begun the preparation
of an inventoryand guide that is to occupy three volumes. The presentone, limited
as it is to general description,still offers intriguing glimpses at researchpossibilities.
What, for example,were the natureand compositionof the militia? Was the army as
full of foreigners as traditionalauthoritiessay? Finally, what was the social com-
position of the army on the eve of the Revolution? For these questions and others
the controles could help provide answers.Those who wish to explore the possibilities
will find Corvisier'swork an indispensablevade mecum.
University of Georgia LEE KENNETT

LA CENSURE DES LIVRES A PARIS A LA FIN DE L'ANCIEN REGIME

(I750-I789). By Nicole Herrmann-Mascard. Preface by Jean Imbert. [Travaux et
recherchesde la Faculte de Droit et des Sciences economiquesde Paris. Series
"Scienceshistoriques,"Number I3.] (Paris: PressesUniversitairesde France. I968.
PP. vii, I47. I2 fr.)
THIS welcome contributionto the history of publication is a meticulous, technical
study of the administrationand enforcementof the censorshipin Paris from I750,
when the term of Malesherbesas director of the Librairiebegan, until I789, when
the revolutionaryregime abolishedthe censorship.It is based not only on published
sources, the collections of royal decrees and regulations,and the writings of con-
temporaries,notably Malesherbes,but also on extensive manuscriptholdings in the
Archivesde la ChambreSyndicaledes Libraireset Imprimeursde Paris, the Archives
Nationales, and the BibliothequeNationale. Hitherto existing studies of the censor-
ship and the book trade appearin the documentation,but Mme. Herrmann-Mascard
writesbasicallyfrom the sourcesindicatedabove.
Types of publicationother than books are consideredonly incidentally,and the
subject of provincial censorship is likewise neglected. The book is centered about
the Bureau de la Librairieand its personnel,who were under the jurisdictionof the
Keeper of the Seals (of the Chancelloronly if he were also the Keeper of the Seals)
or of the Lieutenantof Police. By the eighteenthcentury,the censorshiphad become
primarilya function of the royal administration,although the university,that is, the
faculty of theology, and the Parlement still pretended to authority in this sphere,
and the author devotes a preliminarychapterto the gradual appropriationof censor-
ship authorityby the royaladministrationover severalprecedingcenturies.
The regulationsgoverning the book trade and the relationsof the Bureau de la

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 Modern Europe 5II
Librairiewith the ChambreSyndicaleof the printersand booksellersare set forth in
great detail. The most interestingaspectof the study is its account of the failure of
the censorship to prevent the publication and distribution of "subversive"books.
This involves a discussion of the entry into France, legally or illegally, of books
printed abroad,of the practiceof accordinga permissiontaciiteor perhapsa simple
tole'rance,of various ways of smuggling, of bribing officials,of the inability of the
police to keep ahead of ingenious distributors,and of the growing feeling in the
government itself that the refusal of permission was useless and that any action
taken against prohibitedbooks only whetted the appetiteof the public that supported
illicit printing and distribution.The censorshipfailed, it seems, because the temper
of the timeswas againstit, even in the government.
It is a pity that a careful and detailed work of this kind, valuable especiallyfor
reference,should have no index.
Duke University FRANCESACOMB

THE FRENCH LIBERAL OPPOSITION AND THE AMERICAN CIVIL

WAR. By Serge Gavronsky. (New York: Humanities Press. I968. PP. 304.
$6.50.)
THE American Civil War produced one of the most torrid episodes of a long
political love affair. During the nineteenth century, America was often a source of
spiritual sustenance for French liberals, but the threat to the Union's survival in
i86o combined with hints of a thaw in the authoritarianregime of the Second Em-
pire to producean exceptionallyintense war of ideas in France over the very viability
of a liberalpolity.
Gavronsky'sabundantly documented book covers some ground previously ex-
plored in the studies of West, Pratt, and Case, but the interpretationof the materials
from the viewpoint of the French domestic situation gives it a novel focus and
direction.Although the structureof the liberalmovementis left hazy, the core of the
study is an extended commentaryon the debate between the liberal and semiofficial
press over the nature of the Civil War and the appropriateattitude for France to
take toward it. According to their respective French supporters,both North and
South embodiedthe highestpoliticalvalues.
Gavronskyshows how French liberals gained a tactical advantageat the outset
from the fact that slavery was already an integral part of the American image. In
comparison,Confederatenationalism was discoveredonly after the conflict began.
The account also effectivelydemonstratesthe screeningtechniquesused by the press
in polarizingthe images into simplifiedmoral essences,although the preceptualcosts
for the liberals on such problemsas American racism are not emphasized.By I865
a large body of French opinion was preparedto experienceLincoln's assassination,
with which the book closes, as a martyrdomof liberty and a loss for national recon-
ciliation.
More dubious is Gavronsky'sclaim to have demonstratedthe influenceof liberal
propagandaon French diplomacyand public opinion. His argument relies too much
on the self-congratulatory claims of the propagandists,while the evidence from the
government'spublic opinion surveys is, if anything, negative in its implications.In
asserting the effectiveness of liberal propaganda,he often begs the question by
compounding it with other, more plausible explanationsfor a decision or turn of
events. In the context of establishinginfluence,the real merit of this book lies in its

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