ABSTRACT
Although widely resisted when introduced in 1798, by 1870 the military conscription lottery had became an accepted part of the life cycle of young Frenchmen. How did the state achieve this success? What did conscription mean to those it directly affected? This article attempts to answer these questions by looking at popular images. Thousands of cheap, coloured images on the theme of conscription were produced by provincial print-houses. Their shifting iconography reflects changing attitudes to conscription itself. They depict the conscript’s new relationships with both his parents and his sweetheart as he is transformed from a tearful boy into a moustachioed Zouave. Conscription was shown as a process of acquiring maturity. But it also involved young men in a more intimate relationship with the state itself. They accepted their new role, the images suggest, because the state fulfilled the function of initiator in this vital rite of passage between adolescence and manhood.
