Overview

David Bell's book traces the development of the French legal profession between the reign of Louis XIV and the French Revolution, showing how lawyers influenced, and were influenced by, the period's passionate political and religious conflicts. Bell analyzes how these key ""middling"" figures in French society were transformed from the institutional technicians of absolute monarchy into the self-appointed ""voices of public opinion,"" and leaders of opposition political journalism. He describes the birth of an independent legal profession in the late seventeenth century, its alienation from the monarchy under the pressure of religious disputes in the early eighteenth century, and its transformation into a standard-bearer of ""enlightened"" opinion in the decades before the Revolution. His work illuminates the workings of politics under a theoretically absolute monarchy, and the importance of long-standing constitutional debates for the ideological origins of the Revolution. It also sheds new light on the development of the modern professions, and of the middle classes in France.

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9780197507728

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Reviews

[V]ery worthwhile study. Its scholarship is impeccable, and the author's command of the literature is most impressive...the range of the major questions involved, as well as of the story provided, makes this work extremely valuable and significant. --Jack R. Censer, Journal of Social History This book is a significant contribution to the field of eighteenth-century French history and is solidly based on extensive reading of manuscript and printed sources. The historical profession has been in need of a book on this subject for many years. Given the prominence of lawyers in the revolution of 1789, the professional experience from which they emerged will be a topic of wide interest. --Philip Dawson, Brooklyn College This is an important book. The arguments are fresh, the evidence rich, and the writing smooth and lively. The narrative is essential to the analysis. Bell is continually posing questions, and nothing in this superb book is ever irrelevant. --David D. Bien, University of Michigan The principle merit of Bell's arresting and richly researched book is to show how Parisian barristers opened up a peculiar and precociously political 'public space' close to the center of Bourbon absolutism during the decades straddling the end of Louis XIV's reign and the beginning of the Orl ans regency. Implicitly challenging J rgen Habermas's influential thesis that modern 'public opinion' expressed itself in art and literature before doing so in politics, Bell's book stands that argument on its head, importantly redirecting discussion about how and when public opinion began to displace the king's 'certain science and plenitude of power' in eighteenth-century France. Arguing its case with evidence drawn from institutional, political, and intellectual history, this a superb exercise in all of these genres, as well as an important contribution to the ongoing debate about the ideological origins of the French Revolution. --Dale Van Kley, Calvin College Bell marshals an impressive body of research in sources little used until recently...Bell's brief and clearly written study traces well the development of the Parisian Order of Barristers. --Julius R. Ruff, Law and History Review One of the best guides to the political culture of the old Regime now available. In marrying together the insights of political sociology and ideological analysis, this book should stand as a model of what can be achieved through the blending of historical methodologies. --Thomas E. Kaiser, Journal of Interdisciplinary History [A] well-researched book that enhances our knowledge of the Parisian Order of Barristers under the Old Regime. Bell's work expands and enriches our understanding of a long neglected but important Old Regime profession and body. --Michael P. Fitzsimmons, History: Reviews of New Books A superb example of the 'new political history.' --Michael D. Gordon, The American Journal of Legal History

"[V]ery worthwhile study. Its scholarship is impeccable, and the author's command of the literature is most impressive...the range of the major questions involved, as well as of the story provided, makes this work extremely valuable and significant. * Jack R. Censer, Journal of Social History * This book is a significant contribution to the field of eighteenth-century French history and is solidly based on extensive reading of manuscript and printed sources. The historical profession has been in need of a book on this subject for many years. Given the prominence of lawyers in the revolution of 1789, the professional experience from which they emerged will be a topic of wide interest. * Philip Dawson, Brooklyn College * This is an important book. The arguments are fresh, the evidence rich, and the writing smooth and lively. The narrative is essential to the analysis. Bell is continually posing questions, and nothing in this superb book is ever irrelevant. * David D. Bien, University of Michigan * The principle merit of Bell's arresting and richly researched book is to show how Parisian barristers opened up a peculiar and precociously political 'public space' close to the center of Bourbon absolutism during the decades straddling the end of Louis XIV's reign and the beginning of the Orléans regency. Implicitly challenging Jürgen Habermas's influential thesis that modern 'public opinion' expressed itself in art and literature before doing so in politics, Bell's book stands that argument on its head, importantly redirecting discussion about how and when public opinion began to displace the king's 'certain science and plenitude of power' in eighteenth-century France. Arguing its case with evidence drawn from institutional, political, and intellectual history, this a superb exercise in all of these genres, as well as an important contribution to the ongoing debate about the ideological origins of the French Revolution. * Dale Van Kley, Calvin College * Bell marshals an impressive body of research in sources little used until recently...Bell's brief and clearly written study traces well the development of the Parisian Order of Barristers. * Julius R. Ruff, Law and History Review * One of the best guides to the political culture of the old Regime now available. In marrying together the insights of political sociology and ideological analysis, this book should stand as a model of what can be achieved through the blending of historical methodologies. * Thomas E. Kaiser, Journal of Interdisciplinary History * [A] well-researched book that enhances our knowledge of the Parisian Order of Barristers under the Old Regime. Bell's work expands and enriches our understanding of a long neglected but important Old Regime profession and body. * Michael P. Fitzsimmons, History: Reviews of New Books * A superb example of the 'new political history.' * Michael D. Gordon, The American Journal of Legal History * This is a rich and impressive book, in many ways a model for what a revised Ph.D. dissertation can and should be....[It is] a book that not only tells a story in a way not told before but also serves as an important introduction for the nonspecialist to the new school of political history and the way it is being practiced for the study of eighteenth-century France. The tone, meanwhile, in an area marked by especially strong opinions and argumentation, is remarkably non-polemical....This is a fine book that is also well written and enlivened with numerous examples of individual lawyers and their actions and writings.""-Ellery Schalk, American Historical Review"

This is a rich and impressive book, in many ways a model for what a revised Ph.D. dissertation can and should be....[It is] a book that not only tells a story in a way not told before but also serves as an important introduction for the nonspecialist to the new school of political history and the way it is being practiced for the study of eighteenth-century France. The tone, meanwhile, in an area marked by especially strong opinions and argumentation, is remarkably non-polemical....This is a fine book that is also well written and enlivened with numerous examples of individual lawyers and their actions and writings. -Ellery Schalk, American Historical Review A superb example of the 'new political history.' * Michael D. Gordon, The American Journal of Legal History * [A] well-researched book that enhances our knowledge of the Parisian Order of Barristers under the Old Regime. Bell's work expands and enriches our understanding of a long neglected but important Old Regime profession and body. * Michael P. Fitzsimmons, History: Reviews of New Books * One of the best guides to the political culture of the old Regime now available. In marrying together the insights of political sociology and ideological analysis, this book should stand as a model of what can be achieved through the blending of historical methodologies. * Thomas E. Kaiser, Journal of Interdisciplinary History * Bell marshals an impressive body of research in sources little used until recently...Bell's brief and clearly written study traces well the development of the Parisian Order of Barristers. * Julius R. Ruff, Law and History Review * The principle merit of Bell's arresting and richly researched book is to show how Parisian barristers opened up a peculiar and precociously political 'public space' close to the center of Bourbon absolutism during the decades straddling the end of Louis XIV's reign and the beginning of the Orleans regency. Implicitly challenging Jurgen Habermas's influential thesis that modern 'public opinion' expressed itself in art and literature before doing so in politics, Bell's book stands that argument on its head, importantly redirecting discussion about how and when public opinion began to displace the king's 'certain science and plenitude of power' in eighteenth-century France. Arguing its case with evidence drawn from institutional, political, and intellectual history, this a superb exercise in all of these genres, as well as an important contribution to the ongoing debate about the ideological origins of the French Revolution. * Dale Van Kley, Calvin College * This is an important book. The arguments are fresh, the evidence rich, and the writing smooth and lively. The narrative is essential to the analysis. Bell is continually posing questions, and nothing in this superb book is ever irrelevant. * David D. Bien, University of Michigan * This book is a significant contribution to the field of eighteenth-century French history and is solidly based on extensive reading of manuscript and printed sources. The historical profession has been in need of a book on this subject for many years. Given the prominence of lawyers in the revolution of 1789, the professional experience from which they emerged will be a topic of wide interest. * Philip Dawson, Brooklyn College * [V]ery worthwhile study. Its scholarship is impeccable, and the author's command of the literature is most impressive...the range of the major questions involved, as well as of the story provided, makes this work extremely valuable and significant. * Jack R. Censer, Journal of Social History *

Author Information

David A. Bell is Sidney and Ruth Lapidus Professor in the Era of North Atlantic Revolutions at Princeton University. He is the author of many books, including Napoleon: A Concise History, Shadows of Revolution: Reflections on France, The Cult of the Nation in France, and The First Total War.

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