The French Revolution: An Economic Interpretation - Softcover

Aftalion

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0521368103 ISBN 13: 9780521368100

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 2008

Synopsis

The economic history of revolutionary France is still a neglected area in studies of the Revolution of 1789. Whilst some attention has been given to the condition of the peasants, the urban working classes and the financial crisis of the Ancient Régime, there has been a general tendency to regard economic factors as external and somewhat peripheral to the truly political nature of the Revolution. This book is designed to redress the balance, providing a clear, accessible, and thought-provoking guide to the economic background to the French Revolution. Professor Aftalion analyses the policies followed by successive revolutionary assemblies, examining in detail taxation, the confiscation of church property, the assignats, and the siege economy of the Terror. He shows how decisions taken in 1789 by the Constituent Assembly inevitably led to a deepening financial and economic crisis, and to increasingly radical and disastrous policies. The study is important also for its exposure of many of the economic fallacies propounded both at the time by many Frenchmen and later by many modern historians.

About this title

Book Description

This book is designed to provide a clear, accessible, and thought-provoking guide to the economic background to the French Revolution. Professor Aftalion analyses the policies of the Constituent Assembly, examining in detail taxation, the confiscation of church property, the assignats, and the siege economy of the Terror.

Edition details

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 0521368103
• ISBN 13: 9780521368100
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 248