Book dossier

L'ancien régime et la Révolution

by Alexis de Tocqueville

*L'Ancien Régime et la Révolution* (1856) is a work by the French historian Alexis de Tocqueville translated in English as either *The Old Regime and the Revolution* or *The Old Regime and the French Revolution*. The book analyzes French society before the French Revolution, the so-called "Ancien Régime", and investigates the forces that caused the Revolution. It is one of the major early historical works on the French Revolution. In this book, de Tocqueville develops his main theory about the French revolution, the theory of continuity, in which he states that even though the French tried to dissociate themselves from the past and from the autocratic old regime, they eventually reverted to a powerful central government.