L'ancien régime et la révolution

by Alexis de Tocqueville

"L'ancien régime et la révolution" by Alexis de Tocqueville is an essay published in 1856. Writing decades after the French Revolution, Tocqueville investigates its origins and challenges conventional understanding. He argues the Revolution was not a sudden break but the culmination of centuries-long processes, particularly state centralization. Examining why France—the most politically advanced nation—experienced such upheaval, he reveals paradoxes: the Revolution both destroyed and continued the old regime's institutions, and progress itself accelerated the collapse of feudal society.