The Old Regime and the Revolution

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L'Ancien Régime et la Révolution (1856) is a work by the French historian Alexis de Tocqueville translated in English as either The Old Regime and the Revolution or The Old Regime and the French Revolution. The book analyzes French society before the French Revolution — the so-called "Ancien Régime" — and investigates the causes and forces that brought about the Revolution. It is one of the major early historical works on the French Revolution. In this book, Tocqueville develops his main theory about the French revolution; the theory of continuity in which he states that even though the French tried to disasociate themselves from the past and from the old regime; they continued with the same powerful central government.