The Social Interpretation of the French Revolution

Hardback

Main Details

Title The Social Interpretation of the French Revolution
Authors and Contributors      By (author) Alfred Cobban
Introduction by Gwynne Lewis
SeriesThe Wiles Lectures
Physical Properties
Format:Hardback
Pages:230
Dimensions(mm): Height 216,Width 140
Category/GenreWorld history - c 1750 to c 1900
ISBN/Barcode 9780521661515
ClassificationsDewey:944.04
Audience
Tertiary Education (US: College)
Professional & Vocational
Edition 2nd Revised edition

Publishing Details

Publisher Cambridge University Press
Imprint Cambridge University Press
Publication Date 27 May 1999
Publication Country United Kingdom

Description

Alfred Cobban's The Social Interpretation of the French Revolution is one of the acknowledged classics of post-war historiography. This 'revisionist' analysis of the French Revolution caused a furore on first publication in 1964, challenging as it did established orthodoxies during the crucial period of the Cold War. Cobban saw the French Revolution as central to the 'grand narrative of modern history', but provided a salutary corrective to many celebrated social explanations, determinist and otherwise, of its origins and development. A generation later this concise but powerful intervention is now reissued with a new introduction by Gwynne Lewis, providing students with both a context for Cobban's own arguments, and assessing the course of Revolutionary studies in the wake of The Social Interpretation. This book remains a handbook of revisionism for Anglo-Saxon scholars, and is essential reading for all students of French history at undergraduate level and above.

Reviews

'This is a provocative, lively, and well-written book, and its call for a truly modern sociology of the Revolution can only meet with general approval.' Review of Politics 'This book will be both stimulating and challenging to all those who have so far accepted the orthodox 'bourgeois versus aristocrat' theory.' The Times Educational Supplement