Lawyers and Citizens The Making of a Political Elite in Old Regime France |
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| Author:
| Bell, David A. |
| ISBN: | 978-0-19-507670-7 |
| Publication Date: | Apr 1994 |
| Publisher: | Oxford University Press, Incorporated
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| Book Format: | Hardback |
| List Price: | USD $215.00 |
Book Description:
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Bell argues that French lawyers of the ancien régime played a critical role in shaping the French Revolution. Critics in the legal profession had the greatest opportunities and freedoms to develop their ideas at a time when society lacked representative institutions and a free press. From 1660 till the Revolution these critics challenged the crown and created free-wheeling discussion from within the legal system itself, and formed a kind of little republic within the state.
Bell argues that French lawyers of the ancien régime played a critical role in shaping the French Revolution. Critics in the legal profession had the greatest opportunities and freedoms to develop their ideas at a time when society lacked representative institutions and a free press. From 1660 till the Revolution these critics challenged the crown and created free-wheeling discussion from within the legal system itself, and formed a kind of little republic within the state.