European Civilization, 1648-1945 (HIST 202)

Collective violence, in the form of popular protest, was one of the principal ways in which people resisted the expansion of capitalism and the state throughout the nineteenth century. The nature of this protest can be charted through three different, but related examples: grain riots across Europe in the first half of the century, the mythical figure of Captain Swing in England, and the Demoiselles of the Ariège in France. While these movements were ultimately repressed by the forces of capital and state power, they represented an attempt on the part of working people, the "remainders" of history, to impose an idea of popular justice.

00:00 - Chapter 1. Popular Protest and Collective Violence
03:59 - Chapter 2. The Grain Riots
22:21 - Chapter 3. The Swing Movement
33:48 - Chapter 4. The Demoiselles of the Ariège

Complete course materials are available at the Open Yale Courses website: http://open.yale.edu/courses

This course was recorded in Fall 2008.