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This book examines how the French Revolutionaries remade the pre-1789 system of property by removing public power from the sphere of property and excising property from the realm of sovereignty. This created a Great Demarcation between property and power, state and society, political and social, public and private--the conceptual basis of political modernity.
List of contents
- Acknowledgments
- Note on the Use of French Technical Vocabulary
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 Talking Property before 1789
- Chapter 2 Loyseau's Legacy: The Night of August 4th and the First Abolition of Feudalism
- Chapter 3 The Death and Rebirth of the Direct Domain: The Second Feudal Abolition
- Chapter 4 The Invention of the National Domain
- Chapter 5 Emptying the Domain: The Problem of Engagements
- Chapter 6 When the Nation Became a Lord: Feudal Dues as Biens Nationaux
- Epilogue
- Glossary
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
About the author
Rafe Blaufarb is the Ben Weider Eminent Scholar Chair and Director of the Institute on Napoleon and the French Revolution at the Florida State University. He is the author of numerous works, including The Politics of Fiscal Privilege in Provence, 1530s-1830s and Inhuman Traffick: The International Struggle against the Transatlantic Slave Trade: A Graphic History (OUP, 2014).
Summary
This book examines how the French Revolutionaries remade the pre-1789 system of property by removing public power from the sphere of property and excising property from the realm of sovereignty. This created a Great Demarcation between property and power, state and society, political and social, public and private--the conceptual basis of political modernity.
Additional text
Blaufarb's impressive and erudite work...will likely garner the widespread respect of, and generate vibrant discussion among, French Revolutionary and economic historians alike....Its many virtues include Blaufarb's skill in explaining complex concepts and terms as well as his clear writing style....Above all, the merit of Blaufarb's book hinges on its original reconceptualization of the topic of French property regimes.
