Van Kley, The Religious Origins of the French Revolution, 1-13.
The introduction performs several tasks. Here is an analysis of the introduction, phrased in the form of questions. It is your job to answer them!
1. How does Van Kley arouse interest in and defend the validity of his book?
2. What is his book about? What is it not about?
3. Within which historiographical and theoretical frameworks does Van Kley locate his book?
4. What is the book's argument? Van Kley outlines several aspects of the argument. Can you reformulate the argument in a more precise form?
Besides these questions consider two more:
5. What is your assessment of the introduction? What are its strengths? Does it have any weaknesses?
6. Given your familiarity with early modern French history, will you be looking for any views / interpretations in Van Kley's book that confirm or challenge other views / interpretations of which you are aware?
This page was last revised on 9 September 2002 and has been visited
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