The Old Regime and the Revolution, Volume II: Notes on the French Revolution and Napoleon

 
From the publishers
With his monumental work The Old Regime and the Revolution, Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859) – best known for his classic Democracy in America — envisioned a multivolume philosophic study of the origins of modern France that would examine the implications of French history on the nature and development of democratic society. Volume 1, which covered the eighteenth-century background to the Revolution, was published to great acclaim in 1856. On the continuation of this project, he wrote: “When this Revolution has finished its work, [this volume] will show what that work really was, and what the new society which has come from that violent labor is, what the Revolution has taken away and what it has preserved from that old regime against which it was directed.”
 
Tocqueville died in the midst of this work. Here in volume 2—in clear, up-to-date English—is all that he had completed, including the chapters he started for a work on Napoleon, notes and analyses he made in the course of researching and writing the first volume, and his notes on his preparation for his continuation. Based on the new French edition of The Old Regime, most of the translated texts have never before appeared in English, and many of those that have appeared have been considerable altered. More than ever before, readers will be able to see how Tocqueville's account of the Revolution would have come out, had he lived to finish it. This handsomely produced volume completes the set and is essential reading for anyone interested in the French Revolution or in Tocqueville's thought.

From Library Journal
This is a new translation of Tocqueville's last masterpiece, written in 1851. Best known as the author of Democracy in America, Tocqueville focuses here on the meaning and origin of the French Revolution. This volume is organized into three major subjects. First, it looks at the nature of the French Revolution. Second, it examines the origins of the revolution in an absolutist and aristocratic society. Finally, it considers the reasons for the sudden outbreak at the end of the 18th century. Tocqueville discusses the continuity of French political behavior in relation to persistent class hostility, government centralization, and the preservation of individual and political freedom. This book surpasses older editions of English translations because of its readability and because it is based on the French critical edition that includes the author's sources and materials from his drafts and revisions. Kahan (Florida International Univ.) is also translating the work's second volume, which is to be published in 1999 by the University of Chicago. Recommended for academic libraries.
Mary F. Salony, West Virginia Northern Community Coll. Lib., Wheeling
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
 
Contents
Translator's Foreword
INTRODUCTION by François Furet and François Mélonio
The Work in Progress
The Revolution as Ideology
Note on the Manuscript
by Françoise Mélonio
 
BOOK ONE
The Outbreak of the Revolution
CHAPTER ZERO
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
APPENDIX TO CHATERS THREE, FOUR, AND FIVE
APPENDIX TO CHAPTER FIVE
 
BOOK TWO
Notes Exceroted from Tocqueville's Papers concerning
the History of the Revolution
CHAPTER ZERO
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
BOOK THREE

Napoleon
CHAPTER ZERO
Part One: The Convention and the Directory
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO

APPENDIX
Part Two: The Consulate and the Empire
SECTION ONE
SECTION TWO
Excerpts from Tocqueville's Research Notes
NOTES RELATING PRIMARILY TO BOOK ONE OF THE FIRST VOLUME
Plans
Notes on Germany
Notes of Blackstone and England
Notes on Russia
 
NOTES RELATING PRIMARILY TO BOOK TWO OF THE FIRST VOLUME
Notes Taken on Tours
Notes on Turgot
Notes on the Cahiers
 
NOTES RELATING PRIMARILY TO BOOK THREE OF THE FIRST VOLUME
Notes on Mirabeau the Elder
Notes on the Physiocrats
Notes and Variants, by Françoise Mélonio
Index