Contrary to their traditional image as a caste of intransigent reactionaries and parasites, this analysis maintains that pre-revolutionary nobility actually wer

In this book, a group of prominent French historians shows why the nobility remains a vital topic for understanding France's past. The contributors to this volu

Smith argues that the attempt to redefine and restore French nobility brought forth competing visions of patriotism with correlating models of the social and po

In the eighteenth century, French women were active in a wide range of employments-from printmaking to running whole-sale businesses-although social and legal s