Did the French Revolution bring about the final collapse of the Ancien Regime in France? Or did the old order endure? In this reassessment of its development and nature, Campbell focuses on the ancien regime as a system - governmental, social, economic and ideological. He re-examines the traditional view of the French monarchy as powerful and centralized, arguing instead that its power was in fact very limited, rooted in the social structure of the period, and that its relationship with the dominant social groups such as the Church and the nobility was a complex one.