Ancien Regime and the RevolutionA new translation of this classic text The Ancien Regime and the Revolution is a comparison of revolutionary France and the despotic rule it toppled. Alexis de Tocqueville (1805 59) is an objective observer of both periodsproviding a merciless critique of the ancien regime, with its venality, oppression and inequality, yet acknowledging the reforms introduced under Louis XVI, and claiming that the post Revolution state was in many ways as tyrannical