Balancing the Scales of Justice by Anthony Crubaugh

Balancing the Scales of Justice by Anthony Crubaugh

This text examines the effects of changes in local justice brought on by the French Revolution. It looks at the pre-revolution seigneurial courts and compares them with the revolutionary justice of the peace, finding that the revolution made access to justice easier for rural inhabitants.

“This is a thoroughly engaging and undoubtedly important book whose lucidity disguises a wealth of demanding research

One of the great virtues of this book is its succinctness: Crubaugh writes with economy and clarity and uses nicely posed questions to guide the reader through the stages of his argument.”

—Peter McPhee H-France Book Reviews

“In a well-conceived and well-executed study, Crubaugh compares the seigneurial regime with its analogue established by the National Assembly, the justice of the peace, with a focus that is useful on two accounts. It offers a direct comparison of the administration of justice between the Old Regmine and the revolution and it does so in a rural setting: Aunis and Saintonge, which became the Department of Charente-Maritime.

This book is a useful addition to the literature on law and society in southwestern France.”

—Michael P. Fitzsimmons American Historical Review

“Anthony Crubaugh has produced an interesting and significant contribution to French rural history during both the Old Regime and the revolution. His subject, based on the archives of the Charente-Maritime, is an interesting comparison of seigneurial and revolutionary tribunals of justice and their effects on the local community.”

—David Hudson History: Reviews of New Books

“[Crubaugh’s] original and highly readable volume, quarried from a mass of often unrewarding material, demonstrates superbly how a local study can illuminate larger issues.”

—Malcolm Crook Modern and Contemporary France

“This is a timely and valuable study of the workings of local justice during the French Revolution that examines the institution of the justice and peace, introduced in 1790 as part of a package of reforms, in the light of the revolutionaries’ avowed aim to bring justice to the people and to create a new civic order that would stretch into the smallest village in the land.”

—Alan Forrest Journal of Modern History

Anthony Crubaugh is a visiting Assistant Professor of History at Illinois State University. His articles have appeared in Journal of Social History and A Historical Dictionary of the Napoleonic Era, edited by C. MacKay.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780271020785
ISBN 10	0271020784
Title	Balancing the Scales of Justice
Author	Anthony Crubaugh
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Pennsylvania State University Press
Year published	2002-04-15
Number of pages	280
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.