Class and State in Ancien Regime France. The Road to Modernity?(Review)

In Class and State in Ancien Regime France. The Road to Modernity? (London: Routledge, 1996; pp. xvii+349. 40 [pounds sterling), David Parker brings us his distilled thoughts on seventeenth-century France based upon over thirty years of research. It is a provocative work which deserves a strong recommendation. Parker stresses the hegemonic influence of the French ruling elites in not only the economic, but also the political, religious, cultural, ideological and social spheres of life in the seventeenth century. To be sure, the state and society which emerged after 1661, in which the nobility's attitudes set the tone for the wider society, was not forged with ease. The tenure …