A Social History of Nineteenth-Century France

First published in 1987, A Social History of Nineteenth-Century France argues that the social impact of the French Revolution has been greatly exaggerated, and that in 1815 France was still predominantly a rural and pre-industrial society. The revolution introduced only very limited changes in social structures and relationships – the daily lives of ordinary people remained virtually unchanged. A much more decisive turning point in French history, the author suggests, was the period of structura