本书作为辽宁人民出版社“最经典英语文库”第14辑中的一种，精选由法国著名政治思想家阿·托克维尔的经典作品《旧制度与法国大革命》。本书探讨的是法国大革命，在原有的封建制度崩溃之时，因并未带来革命预期的结果，而致使执政者与民众间的矛盾公开化，社会动荡愈演愈烈。《旧制度与大革命》写于1851年到1856年之间，当时的法国正处在拿破仑三世发动政变建立和巩固第二帝国的时代，信奉自由主义的托克维尔对之悲观失望，成为“国内流亡者”，《旧制度与大革命》就是在这段政治大变动时期酝酿成熟的，其中浸透着对法国命运的深沉思考，和对拿破仑三世政权的强烈仇恨。

TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE
PRELIMINARY NOTICE
BOOK I
CHAPTER I OPPOSING JUDGMENTS PASSED
ON THE FRENCH REVOLUTION AT
ITS ORIGIN.
CHAPTER II THE FUNDAMENTAL AND FINAL
OBJECT OF THE REVOLUTION WAS NOT,
AS HAS BEEN SUPPOSED, THE DESTRUCTION
OF RELIGIOUS AUTHORITY AND THE
WEAKENING OF POLITICAL POWER.
CHAPTER III SHOWING THAT THE FRENCH
REVOLUTION WAS A POLITICAL
REVOLUTION WHICH FOLLOWED THE
COURSE OF RELIGIOUS REVOLUTIONS, AND
THE STATE OF SOCIETY IN FRANCE
FOR WHAT REASONS.
CHAPTER IV SHOWING THAT NEARLY THE
WHOLE OF EUROPE HAD HAD PRECISELY
THE SAME INSTITUTIONS, AND THAT
THESE INSTITUTIONS WERE EVERYWHERE
FALLING TO PIECES.
CHAPTER V WHAT WAS THE PECULIAR
SCOPE OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION.
BOOK II
CHAPTER I WHY FEUDAL RIGHTS HAD
BECOME MORE ODIOUS TO THE PEOPLE
IN FRANCE THAN IN ANY OTHER
COUNTRY.
CHAPTER II SHOWING THAT ADMINISTRATIVE
CENTRALISATION IS AN INSTITUTION
ANTERIOR IN FRANCE TO THE REVOLUTION
OF 1789, AND NOT THE PRODUCT OF THE
REVOLUTION OR OF THE EMPIRE, AS IS
COMMONLY SAID.
CHAPTER III SHOWING THAT WHAT IS NOW
3 CONTENTS
CALLED ADMINISTRATIVE TUTELAGE WAS
AN INSTITUTION IN FRANCE ANTERIOR
TO THE REVOLUTION.
CHAPTER IV ADMINISTRATIVE JURISDICTION
AND THE IMMUNITY OF PUBLIC OFFICERS
ARE INSTITUTIONS OF FRANCE ANTERIOR
TO THE REVOLUTION.
CHAPTER V SHOWING HOW CENTRALISATION
HAD BEEN ABLE TO INTRODUCE ITSELF
AMONG THE ANCIENT INSTITUTIONS OF
FRANCE, AND TO SUPPLANT WITHOUT
DESTROYING THEM.
CHAPTER VI THE ADMINISTRATIVE HABITS
OF FRANCE BEFORE THE REVOLUTION.
CHAPTER VII OF ALL EUROPEAN NATIONS
FRANCE WAS ALREADY THAT IN WHICH THE
METROPOLIS HAD ACQUIRED THE GREATEST
PREPONDERANCE OVER THE PROVINCES,
AND HAD MOST COMPLETELY ABSORBED
THE WHOLE EMPIRE.
CHAPTER VIII FRANCE WAS THE COUNTRY
IN WHICH MEN HAD BECOME THE MOST
ALIKE.
THE STATE OF SOCIETY IN FRANCE
CHAPTER IX SHOWING HOW MEN THUS
SIMILAR WERE MORE DIVIDED THAN EVER
INTO SMALL GROUPS, ESTRANGED FROM
AND INDIFFERENT TO EACH OTHER.
CHAPTER X THE DESTRUCTION OF POLITICAL
LIBERTY AND THE ESTRANGEMENT OF
CLASSES WERE THE CAUSES OF ALMOST
ALL THE DISORDERS WHICH LED TO THE
DISSOLUTION OF THE OLD SOCIETY OF
FRANCE.
CHAPTER XI OF THE SPECIES OF LIBERTY
WHICH EXISTED UNDER THE OLD
MONARCHY, AND OF THE INFLUENCE OF
THAT LIBERTY ON THE REVOLUTION.
CHAPTER XII SHOWING THAT THE
CONDITION OF THE FRENCH PEASANTRY,
NOTWITHSTANDING THE PROGRESS OF
CIVILISATION, WAS SOMETIMES WORSE IN
THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY THAN IT HAD
BEEN IN THE THIRTEENTH.
CHAPTER XIII SHOWING THAT TOWARDS THE
MIDDLE OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY MEN
OF LETTERS BECAME THE LEADING
5 CONTENTS
POLITICAL MEN OF FRANCE, AND OF THE
EFFECTS OF THIS OCCURRENCE.
CHAPTER XIV SHOWING HOW IRRELIGION
HAD BECOME A GENERAL AND DOMINANT
PASSION AMONGST THE FRENCH OF
THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY, AND WHAT
INFLUENCE THIS FACT HAD ON THE
CHARACTER OF THE REVOLUTION.
CHAPTER XV THAT THE FRENCH AIMED AT
REFORM BEFORE LIBERTY.
CHAPTER XVI SHOWING THAT THE REIGN
OF LOUIS XVI. WAS THE MOST PROSPEROUS
EPOCH OF THE OLD FRENCH MONARCHY,
AND HOW THIS VERY PROSPERITY
ACCELERATED THE REVOLUTION.
CHAPTER XVII SHOWING THAT THE FRENCH
PEOPLE WERE EXCITED TO REVOLT BY THE
MEANS TAKEN TO RELIEVE THEM.
CHAPTER XVIII CONCERNING SOME
PRACTICES BY WHICH THE GOVERNMENT
COMPLETED THE REVOLUTIONARY
EDUCATION OF THE PEOPLE OF
FRANCE.
THE STATE OF SOCIETY IN FRANCE
CHAPTER XIX SHOWING THAT A GREAT
ADMINISTRATIVE REVOLUTION HAD
PRECEDED THE POLITICAL REVOLUTION,
AND WHAT WERE THE CONSEQUENCES IT
PRODUCED.
CHAPTER XX SHOWING THAT THE
REVOLUTION PROCEEDED NATURALLY