• List of illustrations; List of tables; Preface; Acknowledgements; List of abbreviations; 1. Rural France in the eighteenth century; 2. The crisis of the late 'ancien régime'; 3. 1789: between hope and fear; 4. Dismantling the seigneurial regime; 5. The land settlement: collective rights versus agrarian individualism; 6. The administrative revolution; 7. Terror and counter-terror; 8. The balance-sheet; Notes; Bibliography; Index.

'While modestly claiming that his work is not based on original research, this book renews our understanding of the subject. With an acute sense of region, a preoccupation with politics and culture, the author continues a chronological and thematic approach which is stimulating as well as informative. In a conclusion, boldly termed 'the balance sheet', he examines the complexities of this vast experience with perceptive shrewdness. This is undoubtedly the finest book to appear, so far, in English, in these busy commemorative years of the Revolution.' Douglas Johnson, The Times Educational Supplement