Balancing the Scales of Justice

"This is a thoroughly engaging and undoubtedly important book whose lucidity disguises a wealth of demanding research.

One of the great virtues of this book is its succinctness: Crubaugh writes with economy and clarity and uses nicely posed questions to guide the reader through the stages of his argument."

-Peter McPhee H-France Book Reviews

"In a well-conceived and well-executed study, Crubaugh compares the seigneurial regime with its analogue established by the National Assembly, the justice of the peace, with a focus that is useful on two accounts. It offers a direct comparison of the administration of justice between the Old Regmine and the revolution and it does so in a rural setting: Aunis and Saintonge, which became the Department of Charente-Maritime.

This book is a useful addition to the literature on law and society in southwestern France."

-Michael P. Fitzsimmons American Historical Review

"Anthony Crubaugh has produced an interesting and significant contribution to French rural history during both the Old Regime and the revolution. His subject, based on the archives of the Charente-Maritime, is an interesting comparison of seigneurial and revolutionary tribunals of justice and their effects on the local community."

-David Hudson History: Reviews of New Books

"[Crubaugh's] original and highly readable volume, quarried from a mass of often unrewarding material, demonstrates superbly how a local study can illuminate larger issues."

-Malcolm Crook Modern and Contemporary France

"This is a timely and valuable study of the workings of local justice during the French Revolution that examines the institution of the justice and peace, introduced in 1790 as part of a package of reforms, in the light of the revolutionaries' avowed aim to bring justice to the people and to create a new civic order that would stretch into the smallest village in the land."

-Alan Forrest Journal of Modern History