Histoire de la Revolution Francaise

Louis Blanc (1811-82) was a French historian and politician whose writings had a considerable influence on the development of French socialism. In his famous Organisation du travail (1839) he called for social reform by action of the State, an unusual position at the time. As a member of the provisional government established after the 1848 Revolution, he campaigned for workers' rights, advocating the creation of cooperative workshops. His twelve-volume Histoire de la Revolution Francaise (1847-62), most of which he wrote while in exile in England, combines years of thorough research with Blanc's characteristic socialist and republican enthusiasm. Volume 4, first published in 1852, focuses on the administrative reorganisation of France from 1790. It includes details on the new status of the clergy, who had been turned into employees of the state by the Civil Constitution of the Clergy passed on 12 July 1790.