This book is an updated and revised edition of a classic introduction to one of the key periods in modern European history. Olwen Hufton not only illuminates the complex and significant events of the first era in which modernity is recognisable but provides the essential background to the revolutionary period that followed.

The French masses overwhelmingly supported the Revolution in 1789. Economic hardship, hunger, and debt combined to put them solidly behind the leaders. But between the people's expectations and the politicians' interpretation of what was needed to construct a new state lay a vast chasm. Olwen H. Hufton explores the responses of two groups of working women - those in rural areas and those in Paris - to the revolution's aftermath.

Women were denied citizenship in the new state, but they were not apolitical. In Paris, collective female activity promoted a controlled economy as women...