Description
Author: Georges Lefebvre
Translator: R. R. Palmer
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Place: Princeton, New Jersey
Year: Undated vintage Princeton paperback; English translation copyright 1947
Edition: Vintage Princeton Paperback edition
Format: Trade paperback
Page Count: xx, 233 pages
Condition: Good to Very Good vintage condition. Cover has age-toning, light surface wear, scattered spotting, and an old penciled price in the upper-right corner. Pages appear age-toned. Please review the photographs, which show the actual copy offered.
Description
Georges Lefebvre’s The Coming of the French Revolution is a landmark interpretation of the events that brought down the Old Regime in 1789. Rather than treating the Revolution solely as the work of famous leaders and political thinkers, Lefebvre examines the different social forces that shaped it—including the aristocracy, bourgeoisie, urban population, and peasantry.
First published in France in 1939, the book was suppressed by the Vichy government during World War II. Lefebvre’s approach to history “from below,” particularly his attention to the role of ordinary people, helped make this an enduring classic of French Revolutionary scholarship.
This vintage Princeton University Press paperback was translated and prefaced by distinguished historian R. R. Palmer. Its striking midcentury cover and importance in twentieth-century historical writing make it appealing to readers and collectors of French history, intellectual history, and vintage university-press books.
Why we love this book
This is more than a straightforward chronicle of 1789. Lefebvre asks how a seemingly powerful political order could collapse—and shows how economic pressure, social class, political conflict, public fear, and popular action converged to create revolutionary change. It is a serious but approachable vintage history book that invites both reading and collecting.