Between 1789 and 1848, clerks modified their occupational practices, responding to political scrutiny and state-administration reforms. Ralph Kingston examines the lives and influence of bureaucrats inside and outside the office as they helped define nineteenth-century bourgeois social capital, ideals of emulation, honour, and masculinity.

Autorentext
RALPH KINGSTON is an assistant professor of History at Auburn University, USA. He previously held positions at Trinity College Dublin, and as a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow at University College London. His article, The Bricks and Mortar of Revolutionary Administration, published in French History, was awarded the SEASECS Percy V. Adams prize.

Inhalt
Acknowledgements Introduction: 20,000 Fools: Inventing the 'Bureaucrat' PART I: OFFICE POLITICS A Revolution in Administration: The Theory and Practice of Government During the French Revolution Revolutionary Time and Space: The Anxieties of Administrative 'Transparency' Telling Tales: Collaboration, Career-making, and the Contest for Credit PART II: BUREAUCRATS IN BOURGEOIS SOCIETY Civil Servant, Civil Society: The Accumulation of 'Honour' in Bourgeois Society Surrogate Fathers, Suitable Sons: Manufacturing 'Paternity' and Honourable Inheritance The Social Politics of Bureaucracy: The 'Bureaucrat' as 'Bourgeois Type' Coda & Conclusion: The Failure of 1848: Bourgeois Social Capital at the Crossroads Note on Method and Sources and Select Bibliography Endnotes Index