ABSTRACT
IN juNE 1848, two irregular armies of the urban poor fought a four-day battle in the streets of Paris. Its outcome would not only help decide the fate of the pan-European revolutionary movement of that year but also, through the writings of observers like Marx and Tocqueville, leave its lasting imprint on social scientists' conception of the generative process of social movements. Through the critical examination of the surviving records, this study has tried to assess how well the received interpretations of the June Days match up against the available empirical evidence. Because its argument challenges those interpretations at many points, it is important to make its logic as explicit as possible. Having, in brief, conducted the reader through these roughly charted regions, it is now time to attempt a general survey of the terrain covered, to map out the key decision points that have fixed us in our path, and to draw out those principles that might guide us in future explorations.
