The Old Regime and the French Revolution

Alexis de Tocqueville

maalis 2012 · Courier Corporation

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One of the most important books ever written about the French Revolution, this treatise is the work of a celebrated political thinker and historian. Alexis de Tocqueville reveals the rebellion's origins and consequences by examining France's political and cultural environment during the late eighteenth century. His view of the revolution as part of a gradual and ongoing social process, rather than a sudden occurrence, offers timeless insights into the pursuit of individual and political freedom.
Originally published in 1856, the survey begins with a consideration of the contradictory opinions surrounding the revolution's outbreak. It takes an in-depth look at the old regime, including its administration, tribunals, official manners and customs, internecine quarrels, and class divisions. Tocqueville explores a range of influences on the rebellion's development, including the political rise of the nation's literary figures, the growth of antireligious attitudes, and the widespread desire for reform and liberty. This modestly priced edition of his scholarly study is essential reading for anyone with an interest in political philosophy, Enlightenment history, and the French Revolution.

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French writer and politician Alexis de Tocqueville was born in Verneuil to an aristocratic Norman family. He entered the bar in 1825 and became an assistant magistrate at Versailles. In 1831, he was sent to the United States to report on the prison system. This journey produced a book called On the Penitentiary System in the United States (1833), as well as a much more significant work called Democracy in America (1835--40), a treatise on American society and its political system. Active in French politics, Tocqueville also wrote Old Regime and the Revolution (1856), in which he argued that the Revolution of 1848 did not constitute a break with the past but merely accelerated a trend toward greater centralization of government. Tocqueville was an observant Catholic, and this has been cited as a reason why many of his insights, rather than being confined to a particular time and place, reach beyond to see a universality in all people everywhere.