This book brings together an international team of scholars from Britain, France, and North America to examine the causes of the breakdown of the absolute monarchy in eighteenth-century France and offers a new interpretation of the origins of the Revolution of 1789 by focusing on the dramatic events within and beyond France which transformed later eighteenth-century Europe so comprehensively and established the terms of political and social struggle for the next
two centuries. It presents a series of up-to-date essays which transcend national historiographical traditions and includes contributions by leading experts from France, Britain, and the United States,
giving it a breadth of approach which previous scholarship has lacked.