Bourgeois Revolution in France 1789-1815

Henry Heller is Professor of Early Modern and Modern History at the University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada. A specialist in early modern French history, he has a special interest in the origins of capitalism and in the problems of contemporary history and politics. His many publications include The Cold War and The New Imperialism: A Global History, 1945-2005 (New York, Monthly Review Press, 2006), Anti-Italianism in Sixteenth Century France (Toronto University Press, 2003), Labor, science and technology in France, 1500-1620 (Cambridge University Press, 1996), and The Transition from Feudalism to Capitalism; The Ongoing Debate (Pluto Press, forthcoming).

“The book is well worth reading as a lively critique of the various revisionist attempts to deny the class character of the French Revolution, and a summary of (some of) the relevant evidence.” • Weekly Worker“…the book provides a considerable contribution to the ongoing discussions about the character and significance of the French Revolution… a significant enrichment and reinvigoration of the traditional Marxist explanation of the French Revolution and a fine synthesis of the many contributions to criticism of revisionist theses from especially the last two decades. Possibly this book may even provide the starting point for more synthetic re-introductions of socio-economic explanations within the historiography of the Revolution.” • H-Soz-und-Kult

• AcknowledgementsPrefaceIntroductionChapter 1. Questioning RevisionismChapter 2. Capitalism and the Eighteenth Century French EconomyChapter 3. Capitalism, Wage Labor, and the BourgeoisieChapter 4. The Revolutionary CrisisChapter 5. The Economy in Revolution (1789-1799)Chapter 6. The Directory (1795-1799)Chapter 7. The Era of Napoleon (1799-1815)ConclusionBibliographyIndex