The French Revolution: An Economic Interpretation
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The economic history of revolutionary France is still a neglected area in studies of the Revolution of 1789. Whilst some attention has been given to the condition of the peasants, the urban working classes and the financial crisis of the Ancient Régime, there has been a general tendency to regard economic factors as external and somewhat peripheral to the truly political nature of the Revolution. This book is designed to redress the balance, providing a clear, accessible, and thought-provoking guide to the economic background to the French Revolution. Professor Aftalion analyses the policies followed by successive revolutionary assemblies, examining in detail taxation, the confiscation of church property, the assignats, and the siege economy of the Terror. He shows how decisions taken in 1789 by the Constituent Assembly inevitably led to a deepening financial and economic crisis, and to increasingly radical and disastrous policies. The study is important also for its exposure of many of the economic fallacies propounded both at the time by many Frenchmen and later by many modern historians.
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Having the distinction of being so retrograde that the author can presumably be found on the cover, The French Revolution: An Economic Interpretation is an invaluable window into the French revolution from the perspective of someone who was actually there. Florin Aftalion's experience during the revolution is an invaluable resource, and it tells modern readers a great deal about what hidebound public servants actually thought and felt at the time of such momentous calamity.
Coming from the Ancien Regime's magnificent splendor, where only kings and princes could move the world, how did they explain such a monumental shift caused by commoners and peasants? Aftalion is happy to put clawed and dessicated hand to pen and tell us in this fabulous memoir. The excellently preserved husk of what was once Aftalion explains, with magnificent charts and graphs, how the revolution had very little to do with political upheaval. It was all economic in nature! This perspective is especially reasonable given that the property values on Aftalion's crypt have no doubt fluctuated in the recent economic crises. Is another revolution on the rise? We'll have to find that shaman again and find out!
If you want a seasoned and reasonable account of the revolution that takes into account the importance of the individual and the social currents of the time, this may not be the necronomicon for you! But if you're looking for an archaic perspective on a fascinating subject, devoid of all the vital currents that make this period so fascinating, I highly recommend this eldritch tome.
Also, it's pretty short.
