Absolutism and society in seventeenth-century France : state power and provincial aristocracy in Languedoc /

Unlike most specialized administrative studies that focus on one particular institution, Beik's work examines a whole province, Languedoc, during the 1620s and 1630s, tracing the interrelationship of the rulers (nobles, sovereign courts, estates, and towns) with each other and with the crown. The result illuminates a fundamental issue, the nature of absolutism. Beik (Northern Illinois) argues persuasively that the privileged classes, at first opposed to the centralizing tendencies of Richelieu and Mazarin, moved toward cooperation with Louis XIV and Colbert because they recognized that a unity of ruling classes was necessary in a hierarchical society to maintain common vested interests. Beik's richly documented and highly suggestive account touches on important issues that have dominated recent scholarship: the debate over orders versus classes, the meaning of a ``feudal'' society, the role of venality and clientage systems, the pressures of state finance, and the hierarchical nature of society. A major work for students of the period. Recommended for every college and university library.-D.C. Baxter, Ohio University