This is a story of brilliance, order and sophistication, of supreme confidence and great achievement - that begins in uncertainty and ends in iconoclasm.
 |
| ||||||||||||||||||
Browse our Bookshelf Favorites store for big savings on popular fiction, nonfiction, children's books, and more. |
Book Description
Frequently Bought Together
Editorial Reviews
Review
"This volume, which includes a helpful chronological table and glossary, will be the standard history of France for years to come. The Ancien Regime is definitely the richest and most satisfying account of the political history of Bourbon France available in English." Reviews in History
Language Notes
Text: English (translation)
Original Language: French --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Original Language: French --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images? |
More About the Author
Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.
Customer Reviews
Share your thoughts with other customers
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Truly excellent history of pre-revolutionary France from the end of Henry IV’s reign through the reign of Louis XV. Thorough, eloquent, and insightful, yet not for those looking for a simple overview of the time: This is serious scholarship - 600 pages and occasionally detailed to the point of perhaps being interesting only to a professor . All in all a really excellent work and one of the very best history books I’ve ever read, but heavy lifting for sure.
3 of 8 people found the following review helpful
By R. Fields
Format:Paperback
History should, first, be a story that is interesting and informative, especially when it involves such a vibrant and exciting era as the Ancien Regime.
This book fails at the basics of creating an readable, organized, engaging history, and - rather - bogs the reader down with needless detail while omitting necessary background information. There are numerous blatant and distracting errors (despite the author's generally excellent scholarship) and at least one major conclusion is clearly erroneous (the author finds the ultimate effect of John Law's bank and the South Sea Bubble on the economy to be positive - for a really insightful view into this event, see Charles Mackay's, "Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds").
There was a single apparent bright spot in the book - the actual quote of Louis XIV speaking to the 5 year old Louis XV on his deathbed - and the source of that, putatively authoritative, quote is not even documented, and is therefore useless.
This book is actually harmful, in that it discourages the reader from actually learning about an important and exciting era in western history, while offering little of value in return.
This book fails at the basics of creating an readable, organized, engaging history, and - rather - bogs the reader down with needless detail while omitting necessary background information. There are numerous blatant and distracting errors (despite the author's generally excellent scholarship) and at least one major conclusion is clearly erroneous (the author finds the ultimate effect of John Law's bank and the South Sea Bubble on the economy to be positive - for a really insightful view into this event, see Charles Mackay's, "Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds").
There was a single apparent bright spot in the book - the actual quote of Louis XIV speaking to the 5 year old Louis XV on his deathbed - and the source of that, putatively authoritative, quote is not even documented, and is therefore useless.
This book is actually harmful, in that it discourages the reader from actually learning about an important and exciting era in western history, while offering little of value in return.
10 of 32 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Hardcover
WE NEED MORE BOOKS ON FRENCH HISTORY!!!! JUST ONE PLAIN BOOK, WITH ALL THE HISTORY OF FRANCE IN IT, WOULD MAKE MY DAY. THANKYOU.
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 40
books:
See all 40 books this book cites
- The French Revolution (Revolutions in the Modern World) by J. F. Bosher on 8 pages
- The French Revolution: 1770-1814 by Francois Furet on 8 pages
- Origins of the French Revolution by William Doyle on 7 pages
- The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers by Paul Kennedy on page 364, page 365, and page 380
- The Oxford History of the French Revolution by William Doyle on page 430, Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
See all 40 books this book cites
Books on Related Topics
(learn more)
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
Listmania!
|
|
So You'd Like to...
|
|
Look for Similar Items by Category
- Books > Education & Reference > Foreign Language Study & Reference
- Books > History > Europe > France
- Books > History > Modern (16th-21st Centuries) > 17th Century
- Books > History > Modern (16th-21st Centuries) > 18th Century
- Books > History > World
- Books > New, Used & Rental Textbooks > Humanities > History > Europe
