Democracy in Europe

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Peter R. Campbell

Power and Politics in Old Regime France is a major history of the politics of the first half of the reign of Louis XV. It is based on exhaustive archival research and offers a comprehensive analysis of the neglected ministries of the duc de Bourbon and the cardinal de Fleury. Peter Campbell deals first with court, policy and faction. A second section offers new interpretations of the crises provoked by the Jansenism and the Paris parlement. The methods and practices of political management in this period of successful government are contrasted with the crisis of the old regime in the 1780s. An unusually substantial bibliography represents an invaluable resource to the researcher.

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Atsuko Ichijo

The idea of Europe, European identities and Europeanization, in short 'Europe', has been conventionally studied in relation to nationalism and the hegemony of nation-states in the modern world. Europe, Nations and Modernity aims to open up a fresh perspective to the study of 'Europe' by placing the discussion of 'what is Europe and what is it to be European?' in a wider context of the study of modernity. As a number of scholars have argued, 'Europe' is a fundamentally contested concept. This collection is inspired by on-going debates and proposes to study Europe by placing it in a tripartite relationship with nations and modernity using 'Europe as modernity' as a key. The volume presents a collection of nine case studies: Bulgaria, Croatia, Finland, France, Hungary, Germany, Greece, Turkey and the United Kingdom and provides a map of different constellations of Europe, nations and modernity in today's Europe.

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Peter McPhee

What did it mean to live through the French Revolution? This is a new narrative account of the Revolution which probes the lived experience of revolutionary upheaval for the people of France's villages and country towns. Peter McPhee draws on a vast range of material to listen to how working people understood, participated in or rejected the Revolution. The freshness of the voices we hear across more than two centuries is startling. He contests the orthodox view of the Revolution as an urban upheaval of which the outcomes were political and ideological. For the working people of country towns, villages and farms, the Revolution had a dramatic impact on daily life: from family relationships and religious practice to the nature of social and economic structures and the environment. Above all, people would never understand themselves or their world in the same way. This is a compelling story which both makes sense of the often bewildering story of these years while taking us closer to a comprehension of what it meant to be an inhabitant of France at that time. The book will be of particular use to undergraduate students and their teachers because of its clear narrative style and illustrations.

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T.C.W. Blanning

Few historical events have inspired so much controversy and debate as the French Revolution. The origins, nature and effects of the Revolution have been the themes of a voluminous literature, especially since the 1950s, and have aroused sharp disagreement among historians. This book discusses the present state of the controversy and provides detailed suggestions for further reading. Professor Blanning explains the different interpretations advanced by Marxist, revisionist and post-revisionist historians in order to provide students with access to the literature and to help them to form their own views.