E.P. Thompson and Zemon Davis on Riots
Riots have been in existence from a long time ago in the colonial ages and they are still existing up to date only that today they not as bloody as they were in the early ages. Riots refer to the state where there is no peace due to disturbance by large or small crowds within a particular area. Riots, in most cases, result due to disagreement or abuse of power by a particular group, for example, most of the present day riots are usually as a result of police brutality. Riots bring unsettles, destruction of property and even death of either party. Numerous historians (historiographical) have different ideas and understanding about riots. Historians like EP Thompson and Zemon Davis, despite being two different people two different places, they may have concurred or not in something about the Jacquerie and also St. Bartholomew’s massacre.
Thompson was a British historian who was born in the year 1924 and was a history lecturer at the Leeds University in the department of Extra-Mural. He was also in Warwick University in the “Center for the study of social history” (Making History, 2008). Zemon Davis, on the other hand, is an American and Canadian historian of the early days of this modern period. She specializes in France cultural and social history and other European regions, the Caribbean and North America. She has taught a number of institutions, including Toronto University, Princeton University Berkley University, and California University (AHA, 2018).
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The two incidents happened during different times in history. The Jacquerie (revolt) happened in the year 1358 during the summer season in the Northeastern area of France. This revolt was very popular, especially among the peasants. The occurrence of this revolt was during the period of a hundred years war. The St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre, on the other hand, happened in the year 1572, where a targeted assassinations group as well as a wave which had catholic mob ferocity focused in contradiction of the Huguenots in France during the religious wars which were happening at that time (Michon, 2018). After the killing of the Huguenot leader, hatred raised against the Protestants everywhere within the city of Paris. Killings started and 3000 Huguenots got killed in the city and in the other provincial cities, it tallied to about 8000 (Manetsch, 2018). The battle started in the year 1572 on the 24th of August in Paris and ended in 1572 October after having spread across the entire country (Michon, 2018).
When it comes to the views of the two historians about the Jacquerie and the Bartholomew’s Day Massacre, their ideas are different. Considering the Jacquerie, Davis has it that this respective riot period tends to be more complex and textured. She stressed the significance of leaders, as well as ideology, take an indicative development toward the sixteenth century. Also, the two consider this revolt as an important one in France (Aiton, 2007). Thompson emphasizes on the matter of class, working and non-working class, rich and the poor. Considering the action taken towards the peasants, Thompsons view was too politically free Marxism. He believed that by doing this then it would encourage harmony, thus reduce the chances of shading blood. He considered transferring of power which comes with class, as a dislodgement of authority from all the commanding statures and its assertion to socialist democracy very significant (Panitch & Albo, 2016). When it comes to the Bartholomew’s Day Massacre, Davis views the actions of the Catholics as insane due to the brutality level, it exhibited, thus cannot be considered as an occurrence which was exceptional. Both Thompson and Davis consider it to be a much bigger affair having sanctions which were more explicit (political authority) having top-level communication networks across the nation. She believes that even within the most extreme religious violence cases crowd’s actions may not be in a way which is so mindless (Davis, 1973). The two historians tend to concur on the fact that the crowd did not have a clear leadership which made the violence go out of control (McFadin, 2010).
References
American Historical Association. (2018). Natalie Zemon Davis Biography . Retrieved from https://www.historians.org/about-aha-and-membership/aha-history-and-archives/presidential-addresses/natalie-zemon-davis/natalie-zemon-davis-biography
Davis N. Z. (1971, May). The Rites of Violence: Religious Riot in Sixteenth-Century France. Oxford Journals . Retrieved from https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/modernlanguages/academic/lines/community/kenilworth/term1-wk6-the_rites_of_violence_religious_riot_in_sixteenth-century_france.pdf
Manetsch, S. M. (2018). The Saint Bartholomew's Day Massacre. Christian History . Retrieved from https://www.christianitytoday.com/history/issues/issue-71/saint-bartholomews-day-massacre.html
Making History. (2008). Thompson, Edward Palmer (1924–1993) . Retrieved from https://www.history.ac.uk/makinghistory/historians/thompson_edward.html
McFadin, C. M. (2010, January 4). Quel Horreur!: Violence in Reformation France . Retrieved from https://epublications.marquette.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https://www.google.com/&httpsredir=1&article=1002&context=dittman
Michon, H. (2018, September 28). St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre: Causes, Events, Impact. ThoughtCo . Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/saint-bartholomews-day-massacre-4173411
Panitch, L., & Albo, G. (2016). Rethinking Revolution 2017. The Merlin Press Ltd
