The History of Civilization in Europe (Penguin Classics) - Softcover

'Civilization is a sort of ocean, constituting the wealth of a people'

A central text in the struggle for representative government in France, The History of Civilization in Europe is also one of the finest general histories of Europe ever written. In response to the reactionary arguments of ultra-royalists, François Guizot (1787-1874) showed that aristocratic social conditions had gone forever. The growth of towns and a market economy had forged the bourgeoisie and created a 'democratic' society based on individual rights. Yet in France, if not in England, this just and inevitable process had been accompanied by the destruction of local autonomy and the creation of an overpowerful state bureaucracy. The History stresses the role of class conflict as a catalyst for social change, and the energizing effect of Europe's plural traditions.

In his introduction Larry Siedentop argues that Guizot's themes deeply influenced the thinking of his three great contemporaries Tocqueville, Marx and Mill. This edition also contains a short bibliography and notes.

Translated by William Hazlitt
Edited with an introduction by Larry Siedentop