- 256 pages
- English
- PDF
- Available on iOS & Android
About this book
Since the 1950s a once-dominant interpretation of the French revolution has fallen to pieces. Elaborated by generations of distinguished left-wing French historians, this version was gradually undermined by the piecemeal criticisms of English-speaking scholars. Many of their doubts, and the controversies which they provoked, appeared in articles scattered over a wide range of learned journals and conference proceedings. This collection brings together the more important contributions of one of the leading British participants in these debates. Some of the essays explore the motivations and achievements of the old monarchy's aristocratic opponents. Others probe the development of venality of offices, one of the old regime's most distinctive institutions. A wide range of revolutionary reforms, their motivations and results, are also examined, and some of the achievements of a generation of revisionism in this field are reviewed.
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Table of contents
- Cover
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Illustrations
- Abbreviations
- 1 The Parlements of France and the Breakdown of the Old Regime
- 2 Was there an Aristocratic Reaction in Pre-Revolutionary France?
- 3 The Price of Ennobling Offices in Eighteenth-Century Bordeaux
- 4 Venality and Society in Eighteenth-Century Bordeaux
- 5 The Price of Offices in Pre-Revolutionary France
- 6 4 August 1789: The Intellectual Background to the Abolition of Venality of Offices
- 7 Reforming the Criminal Law at the End of the Old Regime: The Example of President Dupaty
- 8 The Principles of the French Revolution
- 9 Reflections on the Classic Interpretation of the French Revolution
- 10 The Political Thought of Mounier
- 11 Revolution and Counter-Revolution in France
- 12 Thomas Paine and the Girondins
- 13 Avoiding Revolution in the Revolutionary Age
- Index