The attack on 'Feudalism' in eighteenth century France
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Bibliographic Information
The attack on 'Feudalism' in eighteenth century France
（Studies in social history / editor, Harold Perkin）
Routledge, 2013
- : pbk
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The attack on "Feudalism" in eighteenth century France
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Note
Originally published: 1973
"Transferred to digital printing 2010. First issued in paperback 2013"--T.p. verso
Includes bibliographical references (p. 193-208) and index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
First published in 2006. Feudalism is normally associated with eighteenth-century France only in its more bizarre survivals, as in The Marriage of Figaro, when his seigneur claims the rights to spend the first night with the bride. If feudalism menat no more in the eighteenth century than a few quaint customs that could tickle an audence at the Comedie Francaise, why did French writers attack it so furiously? The author suggests that contemporary writers saw remnants of the feudal regime as important less in themselves, than as symbols of an attitude of mind which the 'enlightened' among them would no longer tolerate.
Instead of representing the ideas of the eighteenth century through the eyes of a few outstanding writers, Dr Mackrell has tried to reconstitute the intellectual climate of the ancien regime from the works of largely unknown historians, jurists, economists and others. In this way he illuminates the rich texture of eighteenth-century French thought, without which the ideas of Voltaire, Montesquieu and even Rousseau lose much of their meaning. This study breathes life into the fierce controversies that shook the Age of Reason long before the outbreak of Revolution.
Table of Contents
- Chapter 1 Introduction
- Chapter 2 'Feudalism' in Eighteenth-century French Historiography
- Chapter 3 'Feudalism' in Juristic Thought
- Chapter 4 The Nobility and Business
- Chapter 5 Humanitarian Objections to 'Feudalism'
- Chapter 6 The Inutility of 'Feudalism'
- Chapter 7 Epilogue
- BIBLIOGRAPHY
- Index
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