Exile, Imprisonment, or Death

Julian Swann's reflective and fine study of the political culture of ancien regime France gives us different questions to aks, and more to go on. * Mark Greengrass, Times Literary Supplement *
Exile, Imprisonment or Death has many strengths. It deftly combines political, cultural and intellectual history. It contains numerous case studies that illuminate its perceptive theoretical underpinnings. It reveals much about the workings of Bourbon France in relation to power structures and the complicated yet personal ways in which the political classes negotiated with each other. It is a welcome reminder of the importance of religion, honour and duty to the educated people of Enlightenment France. * Stephen Brogan, Journal of the Liberal International British Group *
This significant scholarly contribution to early modern French history and the political foundations of the French Revolution is most likely to appeal to academic audiences....Highly recommended. * CHOICE *
While only presented as a series of contexts for the study of exile and disgrace, Swann has, in fact, written the best brief and the most authoritative history of the high politics in the last decades of the ancien régime. The major sources on the councils, the court, and the Parlements, both archival and secondary, are woven into the grand narrative constructed by the fiffteen major historians of the period, beginning with Dom Leclercq, whose work on the Regency dates from 1921. Swann takes their best ?ndings and pulls them together, while making judgments that help the critical reader. * Journal of Modern History *
Masterfully traced and analysed Swann's ... study of disgrace is a pleasure to read; it is written with style, clarity, and a touch of humour throughout * H-France *
Julian Swanns latest monograph is a timely contribution... he has managed to identify and explore lucidly so many facets of early modern disgrace, seemingly exhaustively, is in itself laudable. * Adam Horsley, The Seventeenth Century *
[a] well researched, masterful study. Clearly anyone who hopes to understand the dynamics of French court politics and its culture cannot afford to overlook it ... disgrace was central to the politics of the French court during the early modern period. Now it has received its historian. * Thomas E. Kaiser, The Court Historian *
[a] stunning new book ... This book is important, not just because it amounts to the first detailed study of a neglected and important aspect of royal power, but also because it presents an innovative way of looking at politics over the long durée that exposes an entire culture to examination. Previously known as one of the leading revisionist historians of eighteenth-century French politics, Swann now breaks free of the shackles of revisionism to present an utterly fresh and illuminating study of the Ancien Regime political society, which demonstrates why absolute monarchy was unable to achieve serious reform and why so few lamented its passing. * Stuart Carroll, Journal of Early Modern History *
[Swann] has produced an extremely readable volume ... Ancien régime politics were bewilderingly complex, and it is much to this book's credit to make them not just comprehensible but enjoyably dramatic. It will be vital reading for students of ancien régime history at both an undergraduate and a more advanced level. * Ambrogio A. Caiani, History *
This remarkably rich and insightful book will remain an essential read on Bourbon political culture and opens up exciting comparative perspectives wider afield, on the early modern period and beyond. * Giora Sternberg, European History Quarterly *