Mark Traugott

The main risk of reading academic texts for fun is that occasionally the prose can prove turgid. Unfortunately, this is one such case. I am deeply interested by and emotionally invested in barricade insurrections (thanks Victor Hugo), yet struggled to read more than fifty pages of 'The Insurgent Barricade' at a time. The writing style is quite simply rather stolid. Since the book was probably not intended for a popular audience, fair enough. I’m glad I persisted with it, though, as the show more content was fascinating. I hadn’t previously grasped the scope and frequency of ‘barricade events’ in Europe, especially in the mid 19th century. Disappointingly but not surprisingly, England was the main exception and has seen no recorded barricades at all. Meanwhile in France, nearly every month between 1830 and 1871 seems to have featured some attempt at a barricade-based insurrection, generally but by no means exclusively in Paris. Of course, the vast majority were not as massive nor as successful as those of 1830 and 1848. Indeed, 1848 saw a rash of barricade-based upheaval across Belgium, Germany, Austria, Italy, and beyond. Even Venice got in on the act - although I still await an explanation of how canals can be barricaded effectively.

As well as recounting the rise and fall of barricades across Europe, Traugott examines their symbolic and cultural significance. I liked the chapter in which he breaks down the functions of a barricade in some detail: to provide cover and block passage, obviously, but also to mobilise the crowd and to fraternise with rival forces. The use of barricades after the end of 19th century is not covered, which is a bit of a shame, however the database of 155 documented barricade events from 1569 to 1898 is eye-opening. Of especial note is the two days of republican unrest that took place in December 1851 in the French town of Condom. Did you know that there is a French town called Condom? This was news to me. On a more serious note, I was struck by the third appendix, which comments on the ways in which new transport and communications technologies were used against revolutionary uprisings during the 19th century. Traugott claims that the consolidation of government control allowed by technology resulted in 1848 being the high point of barricade-based insurrection in Europe. Yet paradoxically, as he discusses elsewhere, the mythic power of barricades only rose in subsequent decades and still persists today. I'm amazed at how much excitement this book manages to leach out of barricades, yet some remains nonetheless. show less