The Old Regime and the Revolution


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A calm, philosophical inquiry into the causes of the French Revolution, and the working of the Old Regime. In this work, M. de Tocqueville has daguerreotyped French political society under the old monarchy; shown us where the real power lay, and how it affected individual Frenchmen in the daily avocations of life; what was the real condition of the nobility, of the clergy, of the middle classes, of the "people", of the peasantry; wherein France differed from all other countries in Europe; why a Revolution was inevitable. The information derived under these various heads, it may safely be said, is now first printed. It has been obtained, as M. de Tocqueville informs us, mainly from the manuscript records of the old intendants' offices and the Council of State. Of the labor devoted to the task, an idea may be formed from the author's statement, that more than one of the thirty odd chapters contained in the volume, alone cost him a year's researches.

"I trust," says M. de Tocqueville in his Preface, "that I have written this work without prejudice; but I can not say I have written without feeling. It would be scarcely proper for a Frenchman to be calm when he speaks of his country, and thinks of the times in which we live. I acknowledge, therefore, that in studying the society of the Old Regime in all its details, I have never lost sight of the society of our own day."

The work abounds with allusions to the Empire and the Emperor. It need hardly be added, that these allusions are not eulogistic of the powers that be. Napoleon has seldom been assailed with more pungent satire or more cogent logic. - Summary by Harper & Brothers, Publishers (7 hr 14 min)

Chapters

Preface 17:56 Read by tshoes76
Contradictory Opinions formed upon the Revolution when it broke out 7:58 Read by tshoes76
That the fundamental and final Object of the Revolution was not, as some have s… 8:26 Read by tshoes76
That the French Revolution, though political, pursued the same Course as a reli… 6:46 Read by tshoes76
How the same Institutions had been established over nearly all Europe, and were… 8:48 Read by tshoes76
What did the French Revolution really achieve? 5:34 Read by Ty Lasky
Why the feudal Rights were more odious to the People in France than any where e… 20:42 Read by JaboVercing
That we owe “Administrative Centralization,” not to the Revolution or the Empir… 16:20 Read by tshoes76
That what is now called “the Guardianship of the State” (Tutelle Administrative… 17:43 Read by tshoes76
That administrative Tribunals (la Justice Administrative) and official Irrespon… 8:55 Read by tshoes76
How Centralization crept in among the old Authorities, and supplanted without d… 6:20 Read by tshoes76
Of official Manners and Customs under the old Regime 17:50 Read by tshoes76
How the Capital of France had acquired more Preponderance over the Provinces, a… 8:45 Read by tshoes76
That Frenchmen had grown more like each other than any other People 7:58 Read by tshoes76
That these Men, who were so alike, were more divided than they had ever been in… 26:52 Read by tshoes76
How the Destruction of political Liberty and Class Divisions were the Causes of… 20:40 Read by tshoes76
Of the kind of Liberty enjoyed under the old Regime, and of its Influence upon … 24:24 Read by tshoes76
How the Condition of the French Peasantry was worse in some respects in the Eig… 31:08 Read by tshoes76
How, toward the middle of the Eighteenth Century, literary Men became the leadi… 18:29 Read by tshoes76
How Irreligion became a general ruling Passion among Frenchmen in the Eighteent… 15:49 Read by tshoes76
How the French sought Reforms before Liberties 21:24 Read by tshoes76
That the Reign of Louis XVI. was the most prosperous Era of the old Monarchy, a… 18:39 Read by tshoes76
How Attempts to relieve the People provoked Rebellion 14:15 Read by tshoes76
Of certain Practices by means of which the Government completed the revolutiona… 8:55 Read by tshoes76
How great administrative Changes had preceded the political Revolution, and of … 18:08 Read by tshoes76
How the Revolution sprang spontaneously out of the preceding Facts 14:10 Read by tshoes76
Appendix 19:56 Read by tshoes76
Preface (Version 2) 21:29 Read by Wayne Cooke