Georges Lefebvreâs 1939 work The Coming of the French Revolution documents the collapse of the social orderâand the monarchyâin France during the fateful year of 1789.
Based around a Marxist understanding of class struggle, Lefebvre sees the revolution not just as a political crisis, but also as an assault on inherited privilege and the social hierarchy. Ultimately it succeeded because people at every level of societyâfrom nobles and the elite bourgeois to peasants and the urban massesâfound the will to defy the crown.
Lefebvreâs book was later interpreted by some as simplistic and overly partisan, designed as a rallying call to his fellow countrymen to defend Franceâs republican political system just as World War II was breaking out. Yet The Coming of The French Revolution is still important for anyone who wants to understand how historical analysis of the French Revolution evolved in the second half of the twentieth century.