Beskrivelse
2 volumes. (1) 1715-1799, (2) 1799-1871. I found Cobban’s work rich with insights into French history. For example, he reminds the reader that what is often used as a term of derision, the “ancien regime” was, almost a century earlier, considered the “New Deal” of Louis XIV and Colbert. And the wars of religion: it was the revocation of the edict of Nantes (which foster “peaceful coexistence” among the Catholics and the Protestants,) that cost the French one-quarter of their population, and a majority of their commercial class. The devastating losses in the Seven Year’s War, with Great Britain, which ended in 1763, provided the essential groundwork for a new age of reform. But as we now know, the reforms were not sufficient, and lead to the Revolution. The last decade of the 18th century, rich in horrors and bloodletting, composes one half of Cobban’s account.
