Abstract

The article analyses the paths formed by the lives of four workers in nineteenth century France as a way of focusing on the problem of the relationship between individual life experience and the surrounding environment. The extremely rich biographical material contained in the main source used makes it possible to bring out the total identification between these two terms, which are usually seen as separate and as polar opposites. Individuals are profoundly shaped by the way they are embedded in a social milieu. And this milieu teems, beats and changes together with the individual.