This book provides a lucid introductory overview of the principal problems and changes that have affected the French peasantry since 1789. Dr. Moulin examines the social, economic, and cultural evolution of the peasantry as a subsistence economy that has been replaced by commercialized, capitalist farming, and looks at the political consequences of the dramatic relative decline in the numerical importance of the French rural sector. Regional variations are discussed, and the impact of changes in education, diet, and housing analyzed in a lucid account, translated by anglophone experts on the subject, that should readily establish itself as the principal text on the subject. Useful student aids include a chronology and bibliographies of both French and English work.