The Old Regime and the French Revolution

This 1856 volume constitutes one of the most important books ever written about the French Revolution. It explores the rebellion's origins and consequences, offering timeless insights into the pursuit of individual and political freedom.

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.

Preface

Book I

Chapter I. Contradictory Opinions formed upon the Revolution when it broke out

Chapter II. That the fundamental and final Object of the Revolution was not, as some have supposed, to destroy religious and to weaken political Authority

Chapter III. That the French Revolution, though political, pursued the same Course as a religious Revolution, and why

Chapter IV. How the same Institutions had been established over nearly all Europe, and were every where falling to pieces

Chapter V. What did the French Revolution really achieve?

Book II.

Chapter I. Why the feudal Rights were more odious to the People in France than any where else

Chapter II. That we owe "Administrative Centralization," not to the Revolution or the Empire, as some say, but to the old Regime

Chapter III. That what is now called "the Guardianship of the State"(Tutelle Administrative) was an Institution of the old Regime

Chapter IV. That adminstrative Tribunals(la Justice Administrative) and official Irresponsibility(Garantie des Functionnaires) were Institutions of the old Regime

Chapter V. How Centralization crept in among the old Authorities, and supplanted without destroying them

Chapter VI. Of official Manners and Customs under the old Regime

Chapter VII. How the Capital of France had acquired more Preponderance over the Provinces, and usurped more Control over the Nation, than any other Capital in Europe

Chapter VIII. That Frenchmen had grown more like each other than any other People

Chapter IX. That these Men, who were so alike, were more divided than they had ever been into petty Groups, each independent of and indifferent to the others

Chapter X. How the Destruction of political Liberty and Class Divisions were the Causes of all the Diseases of which the old Regime died

Chapter XI. Of the kind of Liberty enjoyed under the old Regime, and of its Influence upon the Revolution

Chapter XII. How the Condition of the French Peasantry was worse in some respects in the Eighteenth Century than it had been in the Thirteenth, notwithstanding the Progress of Civilization

Chapter XIII. How, toward the middle of the Eighteenth Century, literary Men became the leading Politicians of the Country, and of the Effects thereof

Chapter XIV. How Irreligion became a general ruling Passion among Frenchmen in the Eighteenth Century, and of the Influence it exercised over the Character of the Revolution

Chapter XV. How the French sought Reforms before Liberties

Chapter XVI. That the Reign of Louis XVI. was the most prosperous Era of the old Monarchy, and how that Prosperity really hastened the Revolution

Chapter XVII. How Attempts to relieve the People provoked Rebellion

Chapter XVIII. Of certain Practices by means of which the Government completed the revolutionary Education of the People

Chapter XIX. How great administrative Changes had preceded the political Revolution, and of the Consequences thereof

Chapter XX. How the Revolution sprang spontaneously out of the preceding Facts

Appendix

Notes