3 Review(s)

'The Old Regime Province Of Languedoc' provides the setting for Stephen Miller's rich analysis of state and society relations in eighteenth-century France. Continuing where William Beik's pathbreaking seventeenth-century study ends, this book sheds new light on the origins of the French Revolution and the social and political developments thereafter.Beik's widely acclaimed study depicted Languedoc as the classic example of the ruling compromise between crown and the social elites established by Louis XIV. Building on this study, Miller shows that the monarchical state was far from being a neutral modernizing force. Rather it was committed to reinforcing not just fiscal inequalities, but also those of personal honor, authority, and rights.Based on years of research in the National Archives of France as well as local archives, this book surveys recent scholarship on various aspects of political culture. It then sensibly stresses the importance of evaluating Languedoc in the economic and administrative context. Miller argues that the monarchy's search for revenue in the 1770s and 1780s led to close collaboration with the high-ranking nobles and ecclesiastics of the province.The originality of Miller's research is its discovery that this devolution of power excluded the majority of the provincial elite from the circuits of royal authority.Impetus for opposition to royal absolutism in 1788 and 1789 came from nobles anxious to protect their privileges from the efforts of the crown and its allies to draw revenue from the province. This discovery, Miller shows, helps explain the difficulty the nobles had in winning political support from common subjects after 1789.