The Politics of Privilege: Old Regime and Revolution in Lille - Hardcover

Bossenga, Gail

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0521392829 ISBN 13: 9780521392822

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 1991

Synopsis

This is the first study to examine in detail the political and fiscal origins of the French Revolution by means of sustained archival research at the local level. The book helps to illuminate an important question in the current debate in French historiography (as posed, among others, by Francois Furet, Lynn Hunt, and Simon Schama): if the Revolution was essentially a political event, what shaped the political attitudes of the revolutionaries? The answer, it is argued here, can be traced to the monarchy's contradictory fiscal demands upon members of the privileged elite and the resulting process of politicization. In tracing the unraveling of the old regime, the book also discusses the structure of political power, the growth of royal taxation, the reasons for the monarchy's failure at reform, and the state's regulation of the local economy.

About this title

Book Description

This is the first study to examine in detail the political and fiscal origins of the French Revolution by means of sustained archival research at the local level.

Review

"Bossenga has made a major contribution to our understanding of the development of the modern state in a volume that combines detailed archival investigation with bold general claims. Her exploration of institutional relationships is profound and thought provoking..." Journal of Urban History

"This is an impressive, well-researched, and well-argued study that will force us, or allow us, to reevaluate our understanding of the collapse of corporate privilege during the revolution." American Historical Review

"Heavily based on archival sources, this fascinating and sphisticated study will interest all students of the Revolution." D.C. Baxter, Choice

"This is one of the most important books to appear for some years on the spirit (in Montesque's sense) of the Old Regime and how it collapsed into Revolution." William Doyle, Times Literary Supplement

"Gail Bossenga's penetrating examination of politics in Lille, France, offers the reader a unique insight into the eighteenth century world of urban privilege." History

"Bossenga greatly advances our understanding of the origins of the French Revolution by providing a sophisticated analysis of the relationship between the royal government and privileged corporate bodies in the town of Lille." Steven G. Reinhardt, Journal of Interdisciplinary History

"...the range of subjects in addition to the real depth of knowledge displayed makes her study immensely revelatory....Bossenga's impressive arguments give far more enphasis to fiscality; they force scholars to pay serious attention to these matters in any reconsideration of the revolution." Jack R. Censer, Journal of Modern History

"Bossenga illuminates the essential nature of the 1789 Revolution as a vital stage in the growth of the power of the state. Her basic thesis is that the revolution was essentially about institutional and not social change. The complexities of the relationship between the central government and the provinces are brilliantly dissected in seminal and minutely traced case studies of significant corporate bodies in Lille." Pamela M. Pilbeam, Journal of Urban History

Edition details

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 1991
• ISBN 10: 0521392829
• ISBN 13: 9780521392822
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 276