Structure and Mobility: The Men and Women of Marseille, 1820-1870

First published in 1985, Structure and Mobility was intended to be a sociological portrait of Marseille during the epochal changes of the nineteenth century. Working principally from marriage registers of the period, Professor Sewell brought together a vast range of evidence concerning patterns of residence, occupational recruitment, literacy, intermarriage, friendship, and occupational mobility for virtually every category of the population. From this data, Sewell was able to establish a systematic quantitative description of some of the most important social structures and social processes of nineteenth-century Marseille. Although deeply influenced by sociological methods and theories, the volume was written on the basis of readability and simplicity, and therefore has much to offer to the historian as well as the sociologist.