Steven L. Kaplan is the Goldwin Smith Professor of European History, emeritus at Cornell University.

• List of Illustrations; Foreword to the Second Edition; Acknowledgements; List of Abbreviations; Introduction; 1. The Police of Provisioning; 2. The Regulations and the Regulators; 3. The Origins of Liberty; 4. The Response to Liberalization: Theory and Practice; 5. Forcing Grain to be Free: The Government Holds the Line; 6. The Reforms and the Grain Trade; 7. Paris; 8. The Royal Trump; 9. The Government, the Parlements, and the Battle over Liberty: I; 10. The Government, the Parlements, and the Battle over Liberty: II; 11. From Political Economy to Police: The Return to Apprehensive Paternalism; 12. Policing the General Subsistence, 1771–1774; 13. The King’s Grain and the Retreat from Liberalization; Conclusion; Bibliography; Index

“Broadly conceived, richly detailed, thoroughly researched in the national and local archives, and generously larded with suggestions for future study, this is a piece of work that must delight and inform any student of France under the Old Regime. It is likely to remain, for many years to come, the definitive work on the subject.” —Keith M. Baker, Stanford University