Standing outside the revisionist and postmodernist tide, noted professors explore the changing intellectual and cultural discourses of the late 18th century in the latest volume of this compelling series. The essays analyze a wide range of subjects, including the rise of the bourgeoisie, the arguments over the French state's progressive function, the reality of social conflict, and the revolutionary goals and rights of the peasant class.

Peter McPhee has written the first full scholarly study of rural politics in France during the Second Republic (1848-1852). The Revolution of 1848 and the subsequent regime changed the face of mass politics in France; unprecedented numbers of French men and women participated in legal and illegal forms of political activity during a period of protracted crisis ultimately resolved by a military coup d'etat. In exploring the neglected history of rural France in this period, the book draws on hundreds of regional studies to examine the large-scale political mobilizations of right and left in the countryside, and offers a new synthesis and interpretation of these years. Dr McPhee shows that rural politics were both more complex and more threatening to urban elites than has been generally recognized, and provides a lucid and scholarly analysis of a turbulent period in modern French history and its long-term social and political consequences.

In the forty years after the Revolution of 1789, the peasants and former seigneurs of the isolated and arid region of the Corbieres, Languedoc, fought a protracted battle over the consequences of revolutionary change. Central to this conflict was control of the rough hillsides or garrigues used as sheep pastures, which the poorer peasantry seized and cleared. This social conflict culminated in the murder of two nobles by a band of villagers in the aftermath of the Revolution of 1830. Professor McPhee's book highlights two significant new perspectives on the Revolution of 1789. First, the actions of poorer peasants in massive land-clearance occasioned an impassioned debate about the environmental consequences of uncontrolled tree-felling. Secondly, much of the cleared land was used for vineyards, suggesting the importance of far-reaching changes initiated by the poorest sections of the community.

In this reliable and succinct introduction to the French Revolution, Peter McPhee tackles the questions which are central to an understanding of this crucial period of French history. Why was there a revolution in France in 1789? Was France fundamentally changed as a result of it? And what effects did it have on everyday life? As well as providing an accessible interpretation of the events and consequences of the Revolution, it also provides an up-to-date guide to the main historiographical debates.

An intimate new portrait of one of history's most controversial figures: heroic revolutionary or the first terrorist? For some historians and biographers, Maximilien Robespierre (1758–94) was a great revolutionary martyr who succeeded in leading the French Republic to safety in the face of overwhelming military odds. For many others, he was the first modern dictator, a fanatic who instigated the murderous Reign of Terror in 1793–94. This masterful biography combines new research into Robespierre's dramatic life with a deep understanding of society and the politics of the French Revolution to arrive at a fresh understanding of the man, his passions, and his tragic shortcomings. Peter McPhee gives special attention to Robespierre's formative years and the development of an iron will in a frail boy conceived outside wedlock and on the margins of polite provincial society. Exploring how these experiences formed the young lawyer who arrived in Versailles in 1789, the author discovers not the cold, obsessive Robespierre of legend, but a man of passion with close but platonic friendships with women. Soon immersed in revolutionary conflict, he suffered increasingly lengthy periods of nervous collapse correlating with moments of political crisis, yet Robespierre was tragically unable to step away from the crushing burdens of leadership. Did his ruthless, uncompromising exercise of power reflect a descent into madness in his final year of life? McPhee reevaluates the ideology and reality of "the Terror," what Robespierre intended, and whether it represented an abandonment or a reversal of his early liberalism and sense of justice.

A strikingly new account of the impact of the French Revolution in Paris, across the French countryside, and around the globe The French Revolution has fascinated, perplexed, and inspired for more than two centuries. It was a seismic event that radically transformed France and launched shock waves across the world. In this provocative new history, Peter McPhee draws on a lifetime's study of eighteenth-century France and Europe to create an entirely fresh account of the world's first great modern revolution-its origins, drama, complexity, and significance. Was the Revolution a major turning point in French-even world-history, or was it instead a protracted period of violent upheaval and warfare that wrecked millions of lives? McPhee evaluates the Revolution within a genuinely global context: Europe, the Atlantic region, and even farther. He acknowledges the key revolutionary events that unfolded in Paris, yet also uncovers the varying experiences of French citizens outside the gates of the city: the provincial men and women whose daily lives were altered-or not-by developments in the capital. Enhanced with evocative stories of those who struggled to cope in unpredictable times, McPhee's deeply researched book investigates the changing personal, social, and cultural world of the eighteenth century. His startling conclusions redefine and illuminate both the experience and the legacy of France's transformative age of revolution.

This volume provides a lively and authoritative synthesis of recent work on the social history of France and is now thoroughly updated to cover the 'long nineteenth century' from 1789-1914. Peter McPhee offers both a readable narrative and a distinctive, coherent argument about this remarkable century and explores key themes such as: - peasant interaction with the environment - the changing experience of work and leisure - the nature of crime and protest - changing demographic patterns and family structures - the religious practices of workers and peasants - the ideology and internal repercussions of colonisation. At the core of this social history is the exercise and experience of 'social relations of power' - not only because in these years there were four periods of protracted upheaval, but also because the history of the workplace, of relations between women and men, adults and children, is all about human interaction. Stimulating and enjoyable to read, this indispensable introduction to nineteenth-century France will help readers to make sense of the often bewildering story of these years, while giving them a better understanding of what it meant to be an inhabitant of France during that turbulent time.

Roy Douglas ('Pansy') Wright was one of the great Australians of the twentieth century. Born on a hill-country farm in northern Tasmania in 1907, he became an extraordinarily successful medical scientist and a builder of institutions such as the Australian National University, the Peter MacCallum Cancer Clinic and the Howard Florey Institute. He was loved for his brilliant, often ribald, wit, his fierce loyalties and his sympathy for the underdog. He died in 1990, shortly after completing a decade as Chancellor of the University of Melbourne. Wright was a legendary teacher and much-loved colleague and mentor. However, his ebullient style disguised the private difficulties of a person who was often unhappy and awkward with intimacy. He was also a controversial man. His rivals interpreted his relentless energy in creating medical institutions as megalomania. Others found his blunt personal style abrasive and offensive. In particular, his championing of Professor Sydney Sparkes Orra "dismissed by the University of Tasmania in 1956 for allegedly having seduced one of his studentsa "embroiled him in a decade of public controversy. In this delightfully lucid biography, Peter McPhee reveals the many contradictions in this complex and brilliant man.