Paris, The Provinces And The French Revolution

Tensions between Paris and the provinces, between centre and the periphery, have played a significant role throughout French history.

This book examines the effect of the French Revolution in the provinces, on the tensions between provincial interests and those of Paris, and on the mediations of different political cultures, which ensured that provincial France made a distinctive contribution to the history of the revolutionary years.

The history of the French Revolution is too often written from a purely national perspective, with Paris taking the lead and imposing its own agenda and political values on regions of the country that were still not completely assimilated into the nation. Yet, not all initiatives within the Revolution originated in Paris.

The National Assembly represented a wide variety of interests and cultures. Indeed, this study argues that France had a number of different experiences of revolution, and that no single national agenda can explain this level of divergence.