Author: Thomas Mullen
Publisher: Hachette UK
ISBN: 0316193321
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 448
Book Description
A fast-paced literary thriller that recalls dystopian classics such as 1984 and Fahrenheit 451, from the award-winning author of The Last Town on Earth. Zed is an agent from the future. A time when the world's problems have been solved. No hunger. No war. No despair. His mission is to keep it that way. Even if it means ensuring every cataclysm throughout history runs its course-especially The Great Conflagration, an imminent disaster in our own time that Zed has been ordered to protect at all costs. Zed's mission will disrupt the lives of a disgraced former CIA agent; a young Washington lawyer grieving over the loss of her brother, a soldier in Iraq; the oppressed employee of a foreign diplomat; and countless others. But will he finish his final mission before the present takes precedence over a perfect future? One that may have more cracks than he realizes? The Revisionists puts a fresh spin on today's global crises, playing with the nature of history and our own role in shaping it. It firmly establishes Mullen as one of the most exciting and imaginative writers of his generation.
The Revisionists
Author: Thomas Mullen
Publisher: Hachette UK
ISBN: 0316193321
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 448
Book Description
A fast-paced literary thriller that recalls dystopian classics such as 1984 and Fahrenheit 451, from the award-winning author of The Last Town on Earth. Zed is an agent from the future. A time when the world's problems have been solved. No hunger. No war. No despair. His mission is to keep it that way. Even if it means ensuring every cataclysm throughout history runs its course-especially The Great Conflagration, an imminent disaster in our own time that Zed has been ordered to protect at all costs. Zed's mission will disrupt the lives of a disgraced former CIA agent; a young Washington lawyer grieving over the loss of her brother, a soldier in Iraq; the oppressed employee of a foreign diplomat; and countless others. But will he finish his final mission before the present takes precedence over a perfect future? One that may have more cracks than he realizes? The Revisionists puts a fresh spin on today's global crises, playing with the nature of history and our own role in shaping it. It firmly establishes Mullen as one of the most exciting and imaginative writers of his generation.
Publisher: Hachette UK
ISBN: 0316193321
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 448
Book Description
A fast-paced literary thriller that recalls dystopian classics such as 1984 and Fahrenheit 451, from the award-winning author of The Last Town on Earth. Zed is an agent from the future. A time when the world's problems have been solved. No hunger. No war. No despair. His mission is to keep it that way. Even if it means ensuring every cataclysm throughout history runs its course-especially The Great Conflagration, an imminent disaster in our own time that Zed has been ordered to protect at all costs. Zed's mission will disrupt the lives of a disgraced former CIA agent; a young Washington lawyer grieving over the loss of her brother, a soldier in Iraq; the oppressed employee of a foreign diplomat; and countless others. But will he finish his final mission before the present takes precedence over a perfect future? One that may have more cracks than he realizes? The Revisionists puts a fresh spin on today's global crises, playing with the nature of history and our own role in shaping it. It firmly establishes Mullen as one of the most exciting and imaginative writers of his generation.
Rise of the Revisionists
Author: Gary J. Schmitt
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 0844750158
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 122
Book Description
Rise of the Revisionists: Russia, China, and Iran is a five-essay volume, edited by the American Enterprise Institute’s Gary J. Schmitt, that examines the three rising powers as they challenge the US and the global order in three critical regions of the world. Essays by the American Enterprise Institute’s Frederick W. Kagan on Russia and Dan Blumenthal on China and by Foundation for the Defense of Democracies Senior Fellow Reuel Marc Gerecht on Iran analyze the historical roots of each country’s ambitions, their strategic goals, and possible US policies for meeting the challenges and threats posed by each. Those essays are framed by an introduction by Gary Schmitt that places the tests facing the US foreign policy in a broader strategic framework and by a concluding essay by Hudson Institute Scholar Walter Russell Mead that looks to the Father of History, Thucydides, to provide insight into the complex set of domestic and foreign realities that shape American statecraft in this most challenging time.
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 0844750158
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 122
Book Description
Rise of the Revisionists: Russia, China, and Iran is a five-essay volume, edited by the American Enterprise Institute’s Gary J. Schmitt, that examines the three rising powers as they challenge the US and the global order in three critical regions of the world. Essays by the American Enterprise Institute’s Frederick W. Kagan on Russia and Dan Blumenthal on China and by Foundation for the Defense of Democracies Senior Fellow Reuel Marc Gerecht on Iran analyze the historical roots of each country’s ambitions, their strategic goals, and possible US policies for meeting the challenges and threats posed by each. Those essays are framed by an introduction by Gary Schmitt that places the tests facing the US foreign policy in a broader strategic framework and by a concluding essay by Hudson Institute Scholar Walter Russell Mead that looks to the Father of History, Thucydides, to provide insight into the complex set of domestic and foreign realities that shape American statecraft in this most challenging time.
Truman and Pendergast
Author: Robert H. Ferrell
Publisher: University of Missouri Press
ISBN: 0826260500
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 176
Book Description
No portion of the political career of Harry S. Truman was more fraught with drama than his early relationship with Thomas J. Pendergast. The two men met in 1927. Truman, who was then presiding judge of Jackson County, gave a $400000 road contract to a construction company in South Dakota, & Pendergast, the Boss of Kansas City, wasn't very happy about it: he had someone else in mind for the contract. Although their association began in disagreement, their common interest in politics was enough to establish a long-lasting relationship. In 1934, after turning down fourteen other contenders, the influential Pendergast sponsored Truman for the Senate. Although Truman had often cooperated with Pendergast on patronage issues, he had never involved himself in the illegalities that would eventually destroy the Pendergast machine. In fact, Truman had no idea how deeply the Boss had engaged in corruption in his personal affairs, as well as in managing the government of Kansas City. When the Boss was sent to Leavenworth for tax evasion in 1939, Truman was astonished. Despite Truman's honesty, his relationship with Pendergast almost caused his defeat during the Missouri senatorial primary in August 1940. The main challenger for Truman's Senate seat was the ambitious governor of Missouri, Lloyd C. Stark. In an effort to obtain the Senate seat, Stark set out to destroy Truman's sponsor, the Pendergast machine, & also denounced Truman as "the Pendergast senator." Behind the governor was President Franklin D. Roosevelt, whom Stark sucessfully turned against Truman. Roosevelt needed Missouri's electoral votes to win his third term, & he believed that Stark could give them to him. Because of the stigma of Truman's Pendergast connection, the 1940 Democratic primary was the tightest election in his entire political career. He won by fewer than eight thousand votes. In Truman & Pendergast, Robert H. Ferrell masterfully presents Truman's struggle to maintain his Senate seat without the aid of Pendergast & despite Stark's enlistment of Roosevelt against him. Ferrell shows that Truman won the election in his typical fashion-going directly to the people & speaking honestly.
Publisher: University of Missouri Press
ISBN: 0826260500
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 176
Book Description
No portion of the political career of Harry S. Truman was more fraught with drama than his early relationship with Thomas J. Pendergast. The two men met in 1927. Truman, who was then presiding judge of Jackson County, gave a $400000 road contract to a construction company in South Dakota, & Pendergast, the Boss of Kansas City, wasn't very happy about it: he had someone else in mind for the contract. Although their association began in disagreement, their common interest in politics was enough to establish a long-lasting relationship. In 1934, after turning down fourteen other contenders, the influential Pendergast sponsored Truman for the Senate. Although Truman had often cooperated with Pendergast on patronage issues, he had never involved himself in the illegalities that would eventually destroy the Pendergast machine. In fact, Truman had no idea how deeply the Boss had engaged in corruption in his personal affairs, as well as in managing the government of Kansas City. When the Boss was sent to Leavenworth for tax evasion in 1939, Truman was astonished. Despite Truman's honesty, his relationship with Pendergast almost caused his defeat during the Missouri senatorial primary in August 1940. The main challenger for Truman's Senate seat was the ambitious governor of Missouri, Lloyd C. Stark. In an effort to obtain the Senate seat, Stark set out to destroy Truman's sponsor, the Pendergast machine, & also denounced Truman as "the Pendergast senator." Behind the governor was President Franklin D. Roosevelt, whom Stark sucessfully turned against Truman. Roosevelt needed Missouri's electoral votes to win his third term, & he believed that Stark could give them to him. Because of the stigma of Truman's Pendergast connection, the 1940 Democratic primary was the tightest election in his entire political career. He won by fewer than eight thousand votes. In Truman & Pendergast, Robert H. Ferrell masterfully presents Truman's struggle to maintain his Senate seat without the aid of Pendergast & despite Stark's enlistment of Roosevelt against him. Ferrell shows that Truman won the election in his typical fashion-going directly to the people & speaking honestly.
Pius XII, the Holocaust and the Revisionists
Author: Patrick J. Gallo
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 0786480661
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 227
Book Description
When Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli became Pope Pius XII in 1939, the Nazis had invaded Austria and Czechoslovakia and were poised to strike Poland. Jews and other minorities were already being sent to concentration camps, and the world was on the verge of another horrific war. The prevailing historical interpretation of the era was that Pius XII had a stated anti-Nazi and anti-Fascist policy; he tried to bring an end to the persecution and gave aid and comfort to those who were persecuted. Revisionist views, however, portray Pius XII as a silent, passive individual who ignored the treatment of Jews, Christians and other minorities--a man who could have stopped the holocaust and didn't. Through a series of articles and essays, the editor and eight contributors critique the works of revisionists who allege that Pius XII was sympathetic to the Nazis or unresistant to their atrocities. The essays discuss the roots of these views in the relentless Nazi and communist propaganda of the era, and the debate's revival after a 1960s stage play portrayed the pope as a leader afraid to speak out. By bringing intellectual rigor and responsibility to the issue, this work makes a solid contribution to the history of the papacy and to the biography of Pius XII.
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 0786480661
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 227
Book Description
When Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli became Pope Pius XII in 1939, the Nazis had invaded Austria and Czechoslovakia and were poised to strike Poland. Jews and other minorities were already being sent to concentration camps, and the world was on the verge of another horrific war. The prevailing historical interpretation of the era was that Pius XII had a stated anti-Nazi and anti-Fascist policy; he tried to bring an end to the persecution and gave aid and comfort to those who were persecuted. Revisionist views, however, portray Pius XII as a silent, passive individual who ignored the treatment of Jews, Christians and other minorities--a man who could have stopped the holocaust and didn't. Through a series of articles and essays, the editor and eight contributors critique the works of revisionists who allege that Pius XII was sympathetic to the Nazis or unresistant to their atrocities. The essays discuss the roots of these views in the relentless Nazi and communist propaganda of the era, and the debate's revival after a 1960s stage play portrayed the pope as a leader afraid to speak out. By bringing intellectual rigor and responsibility to the issue, this work makes a solid contribution to the history of the papacy and to the biography of Pius XII.
The Revisionist
Author: Jesse Eisenberg
Publisher: Dramatists Play Service, Inc.
ISBN: 0822235005
Category : Drama
Languages : en
Pages : 60
Book Description
THE STORY: David arrives in Poland with a crippling case of writer’s block and a desire to be left alone. His seventy-five-year-old second cousin Maria welcomes him with a fervent need to connect with her distant American family. As their tenuous relationship develops, she reveals details about her complicated post-war past that test their ideas of what it means to be a family.
Publisher: Dramatists Play Service, Inc.
ISBN: 0822235005
Category : Drama
Languages : en
Pages : 60
Book Description
THE STORY: David arrives in Poland with a crippling case of writer’s block and a desire to be left alone. His seventy-five-year-old second cousin Maria welcomes him with a fervent need to connect with her distant American family. As their tenuous relationship develops, she reveals details about her complicated post-war past that test their ideas of what it means to be a family.
The Last Town on Earth
Author: Thomas Mullen
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 1588365646
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 409
Book Description
A town under quarantine during the 1918 flu epidemic must reckon with forces beyond their control in a powerful, sweeping novel of morality in a time of upheaval “An American variation on Albert Camus’ The Plague.”—Chicago Tribune NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY USA TODAY AND CHICAGO TRIBUNE • WINNER OF THE JAMES FENIMORE COOPER PRIZE FOR HISTORICAL FICTION Deep in the mist-shrouded forests of the Pacific Northwest is a small mill town called Commonwealth, conceived as a haven for workers weary of exploitation. For Philip Worthy, the adopted son of the town’s founder, it is a haven in another sense—as the first place in his life he’s had a loving family to call his own. And yet, the ideals that define this outpost are being threatened from all sides. A world war is raging, and with the fear of spies rampant, the loyalty of all Americans is coming under scrutiny. Meanwhile, another shadow has fallen across the region in the form of a deadly virus striking down vast swaths of surrounding communities. When Commonwealth votes to quarantine itself against contagion, guards are posted at the single road leading in and out of town, and Philip Worthy is among them. He will be unlucky enough to be on duty when a cold, hungry, tired—and apparently ill—soldier presents himself at the town’s doorstep begging for sanctuary. The encounter that ensues, and the shots that are fired, will have deafening reverberations throughout Commonwealth, escalating until every human value—love, patriotism, community, family, friendship—not to mention the town’s very survival, is imperiled. Inspired by a little-known historical footnote regarding towns that quarantined themselves during the 1918 epidemic, The Last Town on Earth is a remarkably moving and accomplished debut.
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 1588365646
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 409
Book Description
A town under quarantine during the 1918 flu epidemic must reckon with forces beyond their control in a powerful, sweeping novel of morality in a time of upheaval “An American variation on Albert Camus’ The Plague.”—Chicago Tribune NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY USA TODAY AND CHICAGO TRIBUNE • WINNER OF THE JAMES FENIMORE COOPER PRIZE FOR HISTORICAL FICTION Deep in the mist-shrouded forests of the Pacific Northwest is a small mill town called Commonwealth, conceived as a haven for workers weary of exploitation. For Philip Worthy, the adopted son of the town’s founder, it is a haven in another sense—as the first place in his life he’s had a loving family to call his own. And yet, the ideals that define this outpost are being threatened from all sides. A world war is raging, and with the fear of spies rampant, the loyalty of all Americans is coming under scrutiny. Meanwhile, another shadow has fallen across the region in the form of a deadly virus striking down vast swaths of surrounding communities. When Commonwealth votes to quarantine itself against contagion, guards are posted at the single road leading in and out of town, and Philip Worthy is among them. He will be unlucky enough to be on duty when a cold, hungry, tired—and apparently ill—soldier presents himself at the town’s doorstep begging for sanctuary. The encounter that ensues, and the shots that are fired, will have deafening reverberations throughout Commonwealth, escalating until every human value—love, patriotism, community, family, friendship—not to mention the town’s very survival, is imperiled. Inspired by a little-known historical footnote regarding towns that quarantined themselves during the 1918 epidemic, The Last Town on Earth is a remarkably moving and accomplished debut.
The Jewish Radical Right
Author: Eran Kaplan
Publisher: Univ of Wisconsin Press
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 264
Book Description
The Jewish Radical Right is the first comprehensive analysis of Zionist Revisionist thought in the 1920s and 1930s, and of its ideological legacy in modern-day Israel. The Revisionists, under the leadership of Ze'ev Jabotinsky, offered a radical view of Jewish history and a revolutionary vision for its future. Using new archival material, Eran Kaplan examines the intellectual and cultural origins of the Zionist and Israeli Right, when Revisionism evolved into one of the most important movements in the Zionist camp. He presents revisionism as a form of integral nationalism, rooted in an ontological monism and intellectually related to the radical right-wing ideologies that flourished in the early twentieth century. Kaplan provocatively suggests that revisionism's legacies can be found both in the right-wing policies of Likud and in the heart of Post Zionism and its critique of mainstream (Labor) Zionism. Published with support from the Koret Jewish Studies Program
Publisher: Univ of Wisconsin Press
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 264
Book Description
The Jewish Radical Right is the first comprehensive analysis of Zionist Revisionist thought in the 1920s and 1930s, and of its ideological legacy in modern-day Israel. The Revisionists, under the leadership of Ze'ev Jabotinsky, offered a radical view of Jewish history and a revolutionary vision for its future. Using new archival material, Eran Kaplan examines the intellectual and cultural origins of the Zionist and Israeli Right, when Revisionism evolved into one of the most important movements in the Zionist camp. He presents revisionism as a form of integral nationalism, rooted in an ontological monism and intellectually related to the radical right-wing ideologies that flourished in the early twentieth century. Kaplan provocatively suggests that revisionism's legacies can be found both in the right-wing policies of Likud and in the heart of Post Zionism and its critique of mainstream (Labor) Zionism. Published with support from the Koret Jewish Studies Program
The Ever-Changing Past
Author: James M. Banner, Jr.
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300258240
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 299
Book Description
An experienced, multi-faceted historian shows how revisionist history is at the heart of creating historical knowledge "A rallying cry in favor of historians who, revisiting past subjects, change their minds. . . . Rewarding reading."—Kirkus Reviews History is not, and has never been, inert, certain, merely factual, and beyond reinterpretation. Taking readers from Thucydides to the origin of the French Revolution to the Civil War and beyond, James M. Banner, Jr. explores what historians do and why they do it. Banner shows why historical knowledge is unlikely ever to be unchanging, why history as a branch of knowledge is always a search for meaning and a constant source of argument, and why history is so essential to individuals’ awareness of their location in the world and to every group and nation’s sense of identity and destiny. He explains why all historians are revisionists while they seek to more fully understand the past, and how they always bring their distinct minds, dispositions, perspectives, and purposes to bear on the subjects they study.
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300258240
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 299
Book Description
An experienced, multi-faceted historian shows how revisionist history is at the heart of creating historical knowledge "A rallying cry in favor of historians who, revisiting past subjects, change their minds. . . . Rewarding reading."—Kirkus Reviews History is not, and has never been, inert, certain, merely factual, and beyond reinterpretation. Taking readers from Thucydides to the origin of the French Revolution to the Civil War and beyond, James M. Banner, Jr. explores what historians do and why they do it. Banner shows why historical knowledge is unlikely ever to be unchanging, why history as a branch of knowledge is always a search for meaning and a constant source of argument, and why history is so essential to individuals’ awareness of their location in the world and to every group and nation’s sense of identity and destiny. He explains why all historians are revisionists while they seek to more fully understand the past, and how they always bring their distinct minds, dispositions, perspectives, and purposes to bear on the subjects they study.
Forget the Alamo
Author: Bryan Burrough
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 198488011X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 433
Book Description
A New York Times bestseller! “Lively and absorbing. . ." — The New York Times Book Review "Engrossing." —Wall Street Journal “Entertaining and well-researched . . . ” —Houston Chronicle Three noted Texan writers combine forces to tell the real story of the Alamo, dispelling the myths, exploring why they had their day for so long, and explaining why the ugly fight about its meaning is now coming to a head. Every nation needs its creation myth, and since Texas was a nation before it was a state, it's no surprise that its myths bite deep. There's no piece of history more important to Texans than the Battle of the Alamo, when Davy Crockett and a band of rebels went down in a blaze of glory fighting for independence from Mexico, losing the battle but setting Texas up to win the war. However, that version of events, as Forget the Alamo definitively shows, owes more to fantasy than reality. Just as the site of the Alamo was left in ruins for decades, its story was forgotten and twisted over time, with the contributions of Tejanos--Texans of Mexican origin, who fought alongside the Anglo rebels--scrubbed from the record, and the origin of the conflict over Mexico's push to abolish slavery papered over. Forget the Alamo provocatively explains the true story of the battle against the backdrop of Texas's struggle for independence, then shows how the sausage of myth got made in the Jim Crow South of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. As uncomfortable as it may be to hear for some, celebrating the Alamo has long had an echo of celebrating whiteness. In the past forty-some years, waves of revisionists have come at this topic, and at times have made real progress toward a more nuanced and inclusive story that doesn't alienate anyone. But we are not living in one of those times; the fight over the Alamo's meaning has become more pitched than ever in the past few years, even violent, as Texas's future begins to look more and more different from its past. It's the perfect time for a wise and generous-spirited book that shines the bright light of the truth into a place that's gotten awfully dark.
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 198488011X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 433
Book Description
A New York Times bestseller! “Lively and absorbing. . ." — The New York Times Book Review "Engrossing." —Wall Street Journal “Entertaining and well-researched . . . ” —Houston Chronicle Three noted Texan writers combine forces to tell the real story of the Alamo, dispelling the myths, exploring why they had their day for so long, and explaining why the ugly fight about its meaning is now coming to a head. Every nation needs its creation myth, and since Texas was a nation before it was a state, it's no surprise that its myths bite deep. There's no piece of history more important to Texans than the Battle of the Alamo, when Davy Crockett and a band of rebels went down in a blaze of glory fighting for independence from Mexico, losing the battle but setting Texas up to win the war. However, that version of events, as Forget the Alamo definitively shows, owes more to fantasy than reality. Just as the site of the Alamo was left in ruins for decades, its story was forgotten and twisted over time, with the contributions of Tejanos--Texans of Mexican origin, who fought alongside the Anglo rebels--scrubbed from the record, and the origin of the conflict over Mexico's push to abolish slavery papered over. Forget the Alamo provocatively explains the true story of the battle against the backdrop of Texas's struggle for independence, then shows how the sausage of myth got made in the Jim Crow South of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. As uncomfortable as it may be to hear for some, celebrating the Alamo has long had an echo of celebrating whiteness. In the past forty-some years, waves of revisionists have come at this topic, and at times have made real progress toward a more nuanced and inclusive story that doesn't alienate anyone. But we are not living in one of those times; the fight over the Alamo's meaning has become more pitched than ever in the past few years, even violent, as Texas's future begins to look more and more different from its past. It's the perfect time for a wise and generous-spirited book that shines the bright light of the truth into a place that's gotten awfully dark.
Becoming a Revolutionary
Author: Timothy Tackett
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 1400864313
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 374
Book Description
Here Timothy Tackett tests some of the diverse explanations of the origins of the French Revolution by examining the psychological itineraries of the individuals who launched it--the deputies of the Estates General and the National Assembly. Based on a wide variety of sources, notably the letters and diaries of over a hundred deputies, the book assesses their collective biographies and their cultural and political experience before and after 1789. In the face of the current "revisionist" orthodoxy, it argues that members of the Third Estate differed dramatically from the Nobility in wealth, status, and culture. Virtually all deputies were familiar with some elements of the Enlightenment, yet little evidence can be found before the Revolution of a coherent oppositional "ideology" or "discourse." Far from the inexperienced ideologues depicted by the revisionists, the Third Estate deputies emerge as practical men, more attracted to law, history, and science than to abstract philosophy. Insofar as they received advance instruction in the possibility of extensive reform, it came less from reading books than from involvement in municipal and regional politics and from the actions and decrees of the monarchy itself. Before their arrival in Versailles, few deputies envisioned changes that could be construed as "Revolutionary." Such new ideas emerged primarily in the process of the Assembly itself and continued to develop, in many cases, throughout the first year of the Revolution. Originally published in 1996. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 1400864313
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 374
Book Description
Here Timothy Tackett tests some of the diverse explanations of the origins of the French Revolution by examining the psychological itineraries of the individuals who launched it--the deputies of the Estates General and the National Assembly. Based on a wide variety of sources, notably the letters and diaries of over a hundred deputies, the book assesses their collective biographies and their cultural and political experience before and after 1789. In the face of the current "revisionist" orthodoxy, it argues that members of the Third Estate differed dramatically from the Nobility in wealth, status, and culture. Virtually all deputies were familiar with some elements of the Enlightenment, yet little evidence can be found before the Revolution of a coherent oppositional "ideology" or "discourse." Far from the inexperienced ideologues depicted by the revisionists, the Third Estate deputies emerge as practical men, more attracted to law, history, and science than to abstract philosophy. Insofar as they received advance instruction in the possibility of extensive reform, it came less from reading books than from involvement in municipal and regional politics and from the actions and decrees of the monarchy itself. Before their arrival in Versailles, few deputies envisioned changes that could be construed as "Revolutionary." Such new ideas emerged primarily in the process of the Assembly itself and continued to develop, in many cases, throughout the first year of the Revolution. Originally published in 1996. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.