Terror and Terroir: The Winegrowers of the Languedoc and Modern France - Paperback

by Andrew W. M. Smith (Author)

This book traces the history of post-war France by tracking the Comité Régional d'Action Viticole (CRAV), a militant collective of winegrowers who have used protest and violence to push back against attempts to modernise the French economy and state and the wider impacts of globalisation.

Front Jacket

Terror and terroir investigates wine and violence in the sun-drenched, southern vineyards of the Languedoc. The Comité Régional d'Action Viticole (CRAV) are a loose affiliation of militant winegrowers who, since 1961, have fought to protect their livelihood. With an identity grounded in a narrative of struggle, they have invoked the medieval massacres of the Albigensian Crusade and grand protests of 1907. Against the backdrop of European integration and decolonisation they have rallied around banners of Resistance and their strong Republican heritage, whilst their peasant protests fed into the Occitan and anti-globalisation movements. At once integral and obscure, they were courted by radical students to support protests in 1968 and sought out by envoys of Colonel Gaddafi. They were responsible for sabotage, bombings, hijackings and even the shooting of a policeman. At heart, however, the CRAV remain farmers. They champion protectionism, heritage and the right of people to live and work the land, pliable ideals that are locally generated but have international implications. Between the romantic mythology of terroir and the misguided, passionate violence of terror, the story of the CRAV offers an insight into a neglected area of France's past that continues to impinge on its future, infused with one of the most potent symbols of French culture: wine. This book will appeal to historians of France and Western Europe, specifically those of protest movements and minority nationalism. It will also speak to sociologists and anthropologists as a study of a distinctive movement motivated by divisive political rhetoric.

Back Jacket

Terror and terroir investigates wine and violence in the sun-drenched, southern vineyards of the Languedoc. The Comité Régional d'Action Viticole (CRAV) are a loose affiliation of militant winegrowers who, since 1961, have fought to protect their livelihood. With an identity grounded in a narrative of struggle, they have invoked the medieval massacres of the Albigensian Crusade and grand protests of 1907. Against the backdrop of European integration and decolonisation they have rallied around banners of Resistance and their strong Republican heritage, whilst their peasant protests fed into the Occitan and anti-globalisation movements.

At once integral and obscure, they were courted by radical students to support protests in 1968 and sought out by envoys of Colonel Gaddafi. They were responsible for sabotage, bombings, hijackings and even the shooting of a policeman. At heart, however, the CRAV remain farmers. They champion protectionism, heritage and the right of people to live and work the land, pliable ideals that are locally generated but have international implications.

Between the romantic mythology of terroir and the misguided, passionate violence of terror, the story of the CRAV offers an insight into a neglected area of France's past that continues to impinge on its future, infused with one of the most potent symbols of French culture: wine.

This book will appeal to historians of France and Western Europe, specifically those of protest movements and minority nationalism. It will also speak to sociologists and anthropologists as a study of a distinctive movement motivated by divisive political rhetoric.

Author Biography

Andrew W. M. Smith is Senior Lecturer in Contemporary History and Politics at the University of Chichester