Crisis and Commitment

the Life History of a French Social Movement

Using ethnographic field data from the Larzac plateau in Southern France, Alexander and Sonia Alland document one of the longest and most successful popular protests in modern French history - the Larzac movement. More than a record of events, the book describes the transformation from the early 1970s of rural defiance into a symbol of left-wing action for France and the world. This revised edition examines the activities of the movement since 1995, including the demonstrations at the Seattle meeting of the World Trade Organisation, the 'great hamburger war' against McDonalds, and the broadening of the movement to embrace struggles elsewhere, such as the anti-nuclear protests in French Polynesia. Particular attention is paid to the charismatic Jose Bove, who has become the figurehead and focus of the campaign during this period.

This account will be of particular interest to anthropologists and historians of contemporary France and Europe as well as students of protest and social movements, and of contemporary politics in general