Provincializing Global History

“Thought-provoking. . . . Livesey has provided an exciting model for regional history that successfully combines social, intellectual, cultural, and institutional history. This book should be widely read.”—Jay M. Smith, Journal of Modern History

“Each chapter is, itself, a tour de force, and the book as a whole is a major triumph. Livesey plumbs the depths of ordinary lives in a rather nondescript province of Europe to build a convincing argument about why and how world history took the trajectory it did after 1800.”—Rafe Blaufarb, Florida State University

“Livesey blends cultural history, financial history, the history of science and technology, and politics in a brilliant tableau of innovation in the eighteenth century. He decisively shows that we cannot understand the success of modernity without recognizing how much innovation was local, driven by ordinary people challenging the authority of tradition.”—Jack A. Goldstone, author of Why Europe?

“Repertoires of knowledge star in this rich and imaginative account. Through Livesey’s eyes—and incredible archival work—we understand how they could connect 18th century provincial France to a globalizing world.”—Christine Desan, Making Money: Coin, Currency, and the Coming of Capitalism