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Book Synopsis
The Ancien Régime and the Revolution is a comparison of revolutionary France and the despotic rule it toppled. Alexis de Tocqueville (180559) is an objective observer of both periods providing a merciless critique of the ancien régime, with its venality, oppression and inequality, yet acknowledging the reforms introduced under Louis XVI, and claiming that the post-Revolution state was in many ways as tyrannical as that of the King; its once lofty and egalitarian ideals corrupted and forgotten. Writing in the 1850s, Tocqueville wished to expose the return to despotism he witnessed in his own time under Napoleon III, by illuminating the grand, but ultimately doomed, call to liberty made by the French people in 1789. His eloquent and instructive study raises questions about liberty, nationalism and justice that remain urgent today.

The Ancien Régime and the Revolution

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    A Paperback / softback by Alexis de Tocqueville, Gerald Bevan

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      Book details

      Publisher Penguin Random House Group
      Imprint Penguin Classics
      Published 29 May 2008
      ISBN-13 9780141441641
      978-0141441641
      ISBN-10 014144164X
      Also in:
      History European history: medieval period, middle ages Revolutions, uprisings, rebellions Politics, Philosophy & Society Revolutionary groups and movements

      Description

      Book Synopsis
      The Ancien Régime and the Revolution is a comparison of revolutionary France and the despotic rule it toppled. Alexis de Tocqueville (180559) is an objective observer of both periods providing a merciless critique of the ancien régime, with its venality, oppression and inequality, yet acknowledging the reforms introduced under Louis XVI, and claiming that the post-Revolution state was in many ways as tyrannical as that of the King; its once lofty and egalitarian ideals corrupted and forgotten. Writing in the 1850s, Tocqueville wished to expose the return to despotism he witnessed in his own time under Napoleon III, by illuminating the grand, but ultimately doomed, call to liberty made by the French people in 1789. His eloquent and instructive study raises questions about liberty, nationalism and justice that remain urgent today.

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