An Infinite History

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Marie Aymard was an illiterate widow who lived in the provincial town of Angoulême in south-western France, a place where seemingly nothing ever happened. Yet, in 1764, she made her fleeting mark on the historical record through two documents: a power of attorney in connection with the property of her late husband, and a prenuptial contract for her daughter. Taking a panoramic look at Aymard and her family over five generations and three centuries, Emma Rothschild reveals how the life of one ordinary extended family offers a remarkable record of deep social and economic changes. The result is an innovative history of social and family networks, emigration, immobility, the French Revolution, and the transformation of nineteenth-century economic life. -- page 4 of cover