Background
Merriman was born and raised in Oregon where he attended a Jesuit all-boys high-school, although he does not consider himself religious.
( Distinguished historian John Merriman maintains that th...)
Distinguished historian John Merriman maintains that the Age of Modern Terror began in Paris on February 12, 1894, when anarchist Emile Henry set off a bomb in the Café Terminus, killing one and wounding twenty French citizens. The true story of the circumstances that led a young radical to commit a cold-blooded act of violence against innocent civilians makes for riveting reading, shedding new light on the terrorist mindset and on the subsequent worldwide rise of anarchism by deed. Merriman’s fascinating study of modern history’s first terrorists, emboldened by the invention of dynamite, reveals much about the terror of today.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0300217927/?tag=2022091-20
(The Margins of Urban Life brings to life the "floating wo...)
The Margins of Urban Life brings to life the "floating worlds of the periphery" in nineteenth-century French cities--the world of beggars, the most miserable prostitutes, ragpickers, casual labor, and unwanted people; the location of slaughterhouses, gas factories, tanneries, and, increasingly, even executions. The men and women of the suburbs and faubourgs were long identified by urban elites and government officials with the turbulent "dangerous classes" who might one day fall upon the wealthy quarters of the center. Merriman analyzes and evokes the social, class, neighborhood, cultural, and political solidarities--the shared sense of not belonging--that made the marginal people in peripheral places emerge as contenders for political power. His investigation explores the world of the Catalan agricultural laborers, the textile workers of the "high town" of Reims, the bitter rivalry between Catholic and Protestant workers in the faubourge of Nimes, the haven for under- and unemployed proletarians in Ingouville, above Le Havre, and France's strange frontier town, Napoléon-Vendée.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0195064380/?tag=2022091-20
(This imaginative study recaptures 100 years in the life o...)
This imaginative study recaptures 100 years in the life of Limoges, France's first socialist city, at a time when Limoges rode high on the crest of every wave of social, political, and industrial change. The story of this single city is the story of urban transformation and political radicalism in 19th-century France, of the struggle between tradition and modernity in French society and politics that took place not only within cities but also between cities and the countryside. Here, Merriman offers vivid portraits of particular social groups, neighborhoods, and events in 19th-century Limoges to describe and analyze the impact of large-scale industrialization, the social bases of political conflict, and the eventual emergence of a powerful working class. The central characters of Merriman's study are the very ordinary denizens of this extraordinary city--its butchers, porcelain workers, laundresses, priests--through whom one sees the effects of urbanization and industrialization on their quarters, work, religion, culture, and political life. The close of the 19th century marked the end of one of France's last truly revolutionary situations, concludes Merriman, as growing centralization dampened revolutionary zeal and the 20th century ushered in a combination of industrial capitalism and a powerful state that was seemingly invulnerable to revolutionary challenges from the working class.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0195035909/?tag=2022091-20
( The Paris Commune lasted for only 64 days in 1871, but ...)
The Paris Commune lasted for only 64 days in 1871, but during that short time it gave rise to some of the grandest political dreams of the nineteenth century—before culminating in horrific violence. Following the disastrous French defeat in the Franco-Prussian War, hungry and politically disenchanted Parisians took up arms against their government in the name of a more just society. They expelled loyalists and soldiers and erected barricades in the streets. In Massacre, John Merriman introduces a cast of inimitable Communards—from les pétroleuses (female incendiaries) to the painter Gustave Courbet—whose idealism fueled a revolution. And he vividly recreates the Commune's chaotic and bloody end when 30,000 troops stormed the city, burning half of Paris and executing captured Communards en masse. A stirring evocation of the spring when Paris was ablaze with cannon fire and its citizens were their own masters, Massacre reveals how the indomitable spirit of the Commune shook the very foundations of Europe.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0465020178/?tag=2022091-20
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00JHXEWJQ/?tag=2022091-20
Merriman was born and raised in Oregon where he attended a Jesuit all-boys high-school, although he does not consider himself religious.
He received his Doctor of Philosophy and Bachelor of Arts at the University of Michigan.
He is the author of many books including his most well known A History of Modern Europe since the Renaissance (1996 & 2002), a popular survey text for undergraduate history classes at many American universities and colleges. His recent books include about the French Anarchist Emile Henry (1872-1894), and focusing on the Paris Commune of 1871, particularly on "The Bloody Week". Merriman teaches French and Modern European history and first began teaching at Yale in the mid-1970s where he still resides.
He was the seventh master of Branford College (1983-1991).
He lives part of each year with his family in France. 2000 Yale University Harwood F.
(The Margins of Urban Life brings to life the "floating wo...)
( Distinguished historian John Merriman maintains that th...)
(This imaginative study recaptures 100 years in the life o...)
( The Paris Commune lasted for only 64 days in 1871, but ...)
(The Story of Mankind (Updated) (Liveright Classics))
(New)
Merriman formed many of his current political views during the volatile Vietnam years. He still describes himself as "virulently anti-establishment".