Pierre Goubert Libri

Louis XIV is one of history’s most notorious rulers. Ruling for three quarters of a century, the King of France had the longest reign in European history, and the effects of his rule would create the conditions that would lead to the French Revolution. Written by an authority on 17th century Europe, Pierre Goubert not only outlines the life the famous “Sun King." but the millions of subjects under his rule, and the effects his choices had on the them.Praise for Louis XIV and Twenty Million Frenchman“ . . . It is safe to recommend the work as the best book available on the subject for the educated layman.”— Kirkus Reviews “This masterful work . . . should serve a generation of student and general readers as the essential introduction to the France of Louis XIV.”— The American Historical Review“In this field M. Goubert is a past master, and his subtle portrayal of the great social trends of the age deserves to be widely read.”— Times Literary Supplement

Pierre Goubert is perhaps the foremost contemporary historian of the French peasantry, and in this book he synthesises the work of a lifetime to produce a vivid, readable, and uniquely accessible account of rural life in seventeenth-century France. Much of the very latest scholarship is incorporated in Professor Goubert's survey, which examines not only such crucial external relationships as those between peasant and priest, that existed within the peasantry themselves. In clear and uncondescending prose Professor Goubert paints a broad picture of peasant life as it was lived from the cradle to the grave, and depicts above all the multi-faceted variety (whether regional, social, or economic) of pre-modern France. As a further aid to students this English-language edition also contains a new supplementary bibliography.

On croit connaître l'histoire de France : dates charnières, " grands hommes " et évènements qui sont censés avoir infléchi le destin du peuple français. Or, c'est à une redécouverte que nous invite Pierre Goubert : un passé trop souvent figé retrouve relief et animation. Nourri des plus récents apports de la recherche historique - économie, démographie, mentalités -, ce livre renouvelle en profondeur notre vision : il s'agit bien de la même histoire et du même peuple, mais comme ils parlent mieux ici à l'intelligence et à l'imagination ! Une chronologie détaillée, des tableaux généalogiques, des cartes, une bibliographie font de cette passionnante initiation un manuel précis et complet.