The Peasantry in the French Revolution [Paperback]

The contention of Georges Lefebvre that the peasantry occupied center stage during the early years of the Revolution is vindicated with the support of fresh evidence culled from archives, unpublished theses and other sources.The contention of Georges Lefebvre that the peasantry occupied center stage during the early years of the Revolution is vindicated with the support of fresh evidence culled from archives, unpublished theses and other sources.This book fills a gap in the literature on the French Revolution, and offers a synthesis that brings together the fruits of two generations' research in the field of French rural and agrarian history. The contention of Georges Lefebvre that the peasantry occupied center stage during the early years of the Revolution is vindicated with the support of fresh evidence culled from local and national archives, unpublished theses, and little-known printed sources.List of illustrations; List of tables; Preface; Acknowledgements; List of abbreviations; 1. Rural France in the eighteenth century; 2. The crisis of the late 'ancien r?gime'; 3. 1789: between hope and fear; 4. Dismantling the seigneurial regime; 5. The land settlement: collective rights versus agrarian individualism; 6. The administrative revolution; 7. Terror and counter-terror; 8. The balance-sheet; Notes; Bibliography; Index. The quality of its scholarly research and its perceptive comparisons make this the best work on the role of peasantry in the French Revolution from 1787 to 1800. Choice In this useful work of synthesis, P.M. Jones provides a timely critique of recent trends in the historiography of the peasantry in the French revolution. American Historical Review