In this absorbing narrative of the fall of the last Bourbon Monarch, David H. Pinkney resconstructs events in France during the seventeen critical months between August 1829 and December 1830. Beginning with the formation of the Polignac ministry, he traces the development of the conflict betweeen the crown and its opponents, showing how the protest against Charles X's Four Ordinances was turned into revolution by the intervention of the Parisian crowd. Motviated by resentement of the Bourbons, economic distress, and vaguely conceived ideals of the earlier Revolution, the people emerged as a political power again and expelled the royal forces from Paris. The fall of Charles X was followed by a power struggle that ended with the investitutre of Louis-Philippe, king by contract with the Chamber of Deputies.
The author examines problems of interest to all students of revolution. What drove teh leaders to revolutionary action? Who were the members of the crowd? What were their motives? What were the effects of revolution on the composition of the ruling elite and on Paris?
David H. Pinkney is Professor of History at the University of Washington, and the author of Napoleon III and the Rebuilding of Paris (Princeton).
Originally published in 1972.
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