This survey of European history covers a period of one and a half centuries which witnessed the beginnings of the contemporary world. In his account of the economic, social, intellectual, and governmental structure and development of pre-revolutionary Europe, Doyle stresses throughout the importance of economic and social trends, and places emphasis on the analysis of the structure of society as well as the narration of events. He shows how the contradictions of the old order contributed to a crisis which affected several of the major states in the late eighteenth century, when the growth of...

In The Oxford Handbook of the Old Regime, an international team of 30 contributors surveys and presents current thinking about the world of pre-revolutionary France and Europe.
The idea of the Old Regime (ancien regime) was invented by the French revolutionaries to define what they hoped to destroy and replace. But it was not a precise definition, and although historians have found it conceptually useful, there is wide disagreement about what the Old Regime's main features were, how they worked, how old they were, how far they stretched, how dynamic or inert they were, and how far the...

Since time immemorial Europe had been dominated by nobles and nobilities. In the eighteenth century their power seemed better entrenched than ever. But in 1790 the French revolutionaries made a determined attempt to abolish nobility entirely. "Aristocracy" became the term for everything they were against, and the nobility of France, so recently the most dazzling and sophisticated elite in the European world, found itself persecuted in ways that horrified counterparts in other countries.
Aristocracy and its Enemies traces the roots of the attack on nobility at this time, looking...

Published in 1986 as one of the first titles in the Studies in European History series, this essay quickly established itself as the most concise and accessible guide to the meanings and hidden complexities of an apparently straightforward historical category, both in the history of France and Europe as a whole. A second edition now incorporates material which has widened and advanced the historical debate in the intervening years, and includes a completely revised and expanded bibliography.

From the turmoil and tragedy of the French Revolution to the rise and fall of the enigmatic figure of Napoleon Bonaparte, the history of France between 1789 and 1815 is one of the most enduringly fascinating - and widely-studied - periods of history. In this volume, the renowned historian William Doyle provides a new perspective on several key themes within the history of this period - from the world of the Ancien Regime to the Battle of Waterloo. He sheds new light on the causes of the French Revolution and the impact of the revolution outside France. In taking a fresh look at the Napoleonic...

In The Oxford Handbook of the Ancien Regime, an international team of thirty contributors survey and present current thinking about the world of pre-revolutionary France and Europe.
The idea of the Ancien Regime was invented by the French revolutionaries to define what they hoped to destroy and replace. But it was not a precise definition, and although historians have found it conceptually useful, there is wide disagreement about what the Ancien Regime's main features were, how they worked, how old they were, how far they stretched, how dynamic or inert they were, and how far the...