Alfred Cobban's Social Interpretation of the French Revolution is one of the acknowledged classics of postwar historiography. Cobban saw the French Revolution as central to the "grand narrative of modern history," but provided a salutary corrective to prevalent social explanations of its origins and development. A generation later this powerful historical intervention is now reissued with a new introduction by the distinguished scholar Gwynne Lewis. It provides students with both a context for Cobban's arguments, and assesses the course of Revolutionary studies in the wake of The Social...

Alfred Cobban's Social Interpretation of the French Revolution is one of the acknowledged classics of postwar historiography. Cobban saw the French Revolution as central to the "grand narrative of modern history," but provided a salutary corrective to prevalent social explanations of its origins and development. A generation later this powerful historical intervention is now reissued with a new introduction by the distinguished scholar Gwynne Lewis. It provides students with both a context for Cobban's arguments, and assesses the course of Revolutionary studies in the wake of The Social...