The Old Regime and the French Revolution

Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859) is familiar to readers as the author of Democracy in America, the most-quoted book written about the United States. The Old Regime and the Revolution is Tocqueville's great meditation on the origins and meanings of the French Revolution. One of the most profound and influential studies of this pivotal event, it remains a relevant and stimulating discussion of the problem of preserving individual and political freedom in the modern world. Writing in 1851, Tocqueville showed the continuity of French political behavior and social attitudes before and after the Revolution. He discussed the dangers to political freedom posed by tendencies towards government centralization and persistent class hostility that endured from the old regime to the Revolution and beyond. Alan Kahan's new translation finally provides a faithful and readable rendering in English of Tocqueville's last masterpiece, surpassing existing English editions of the work which are now decades old. The first translation to be based on the forthcoming French critical edition, it includes notes and variants, which reveal Tocqueville's sources as well as new material from his drafts and revisions. The reader will also find a new introduction and other discussions by France's most eminent scholars on Tocqueville and the French Revolution, Françoise Mélonio and the late François Furet. A major scholarly event, this handsomely produced book will be the definitive English edition of one of the great books in modern intellectual history. François Furet (1992-1997) was the leading French historian of the Revolution and, according to the New York Times, "one of the most influential French thinkers of the post-war era." Françoise Mélonio is the editor of Gallimard's critical edition of Tocqueville's complete works. "Françoise Furet . . . challenged the popular Marxist interpretation of the French Revolution and reshaped French thinking about subsequent events. His lifelong fascination with the French Revolution and his many books on it . . . earned him a special place among historians."-New York Times, 16 July 1997 First published in 1856, Tocqueville's examination of the French Revolution is perhaps a most important contribution to our understaning of this keystone of modern history.