The Great Cat Massacre

The Great Cat Massacre

First edition
Author	Robert Darnton
Original title	The Great Cat Massacre and Other Episodes in French Cultural History
Subject	Early modern France
Genre	Histoire des mentalités, Cultural History
Published	1984
Publisher	Basic Books
Publication place	United States
ISBN	0-465-02700-8
OCLC	749134561
LC Class	DC33.4 D37 1984

The Great Cat Massacre and Other Episodes in French Cultural History is an influential collection of essays on the cultural history of early modern France by the American historian Robert Darnton, first published in 1984. The book's title is derived from its most famous chapter which describes and interprets an unusual source detailing the "massacre" of cats by apprentice printers living and working on Rue Saint-Séverin in Paris during the late 1730s. Other chapters look at fairy tales, the writing of the Encyclopédie and other aspects of French early modern history.