The New Regime

“The New Regime is a refreshing departure from [the new revisionist] orthodoxy, Woloch takes a long view of the Revolution, from 1789 to the Restoration, even to 1830, so that the period of the Terror ceases to dominate. He sees the Revolution essentially as a constructive project, which tore down the Old Regime but put in its place a New Regime of revamped central and local government, wider political participation, the establishment of public education and public welfare systems, trial by jury and universal military service. . . . He brings to bear an immense amount of archival research in order to test the success of the revolutionary project. . . . But in spite of that vastness, he writes elegantly, clearly, with a light touch and a certain wit. . . . The most significant contribution of Woloch’s book is to highlight the difficulties faced by the architects of the new civic order, and not just in terms of counter-revolutionary or religious opposition. . . . Woloch amply demonstrates that the interests of building the state directly conflicted with the building of the civic order.” —Robert Gildea, Merton College, in Times Literary Supplement