ABSTRACT
‘Men are born free and remain free and equal in their rights. Social distinctions can only be founded on public utility.’ 1 In the socially privileged Europe of the 1780s this confidently optimistic claim of the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen of 1789 was indeed revolutionary. Much of this volume will concern itself with the ways in which the Declaration was interpreted – and neglected. The themes we shall consider include why the attempt to reform the French state led to cataclysmic revolution and military dictatorship, the impact of the 1789 Revolution and Bonapartist Empire, the expanding role of the state, the emergence of liberal, national and conservative ideas, and the significance of economic change and population growth.
