The Fronde: A French Revolution, 1648-1652

This absorbing study of an extraordinary episode in French history is a telling reminder that ``revolutions may also be made by individuals who already hold power.'' The Fronde, an uprising marked by strikes, riots and other acts of lawlessness, began in 1648 as a work stoppage by top judges and tax officers defiant of royal authority, and galvanized city-dwellers and peasants to protest taxes levied to finance a war against Spain. Key players in this drama were tearful boy king Louis XIV (age 10 in 1648); his protective mother, Anne of Austria, the persecuted widow of French king Louis XIII; twice-exiled Cardinal Mazarin, the Italian-born French minister whose centralizing policies provoked the revolt; and his one-time top general, the arrogant Prince de Conde, who turned against the government and struck an alliance with Spain. For Ranum, a Johns Hopkins history professor, the Fronde was like a family quarrel among France's elite, yet one that broadened political participation and channeled popular protest against coercive measures. (Oct.)