The Politics of Privilege: Old Regime and Revolution in Lille

by Gail Bossenga

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521893725
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	05/09/2002
Series:	Old Regime and Revolution in Lille
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	276
Sales rank:	700,988
Product dimensions:	6.02(w) x 9.02(h) x 0.71(d)

Table of Contents

List of figures and tables; Preface; List of abbreviations; 1. Monarchy, privilege and revolution: the problem and setting; 2. State finance and local privileges; 3. Corps, bureaucracy and citizenship: the case of the Bureaux des Finances; 4. The excluded nobility and political representation; 5. A nation of equals: the demands of the Third Estate; 6. Uses of a regulated economy: the state against itself; 7. Corporate privilege and the bourgeoisie; 8. The abolition of the guilds; 9. The corporate heritage and the well-ordered state; 10. Conclusion; Notes; Bibliography; Index.

Editorial Reviews

"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

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