William Doyle, FBA (born 1942) is a British historian, specialising in 18th-century France, who is most notable for his one-volume '' Oxford History of the French Revolution'' (1st edition, 1989; 2nd edition, 2002; 3rd edition, 2018). He is one of the leading revisionist historians of the

French Revolution The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in coup of 18 Brumaire, November 1799. Many of its ...

, obtaining his doctorate from the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

with a thesis entitled ''The parlementaires of Bordeaux at the end of the eighteenth century, 1775–1790''. He is also professor emeritus of history at Bristol University, a fellow of the

British Academy The British Academy is the United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and the social sciences. It was established in 1902 and received its royal charter in the same year. It is now a fellowship of more than 1,000 leading scholars spa ...

and a trustee of The Society for the Study of French History.

Published works

*''The Old European Order 1660–1800'' (

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...

, 1978) *''Origins of the French Revolution'' (Oxford University Press, 1980; 3rd edition, 1992) *''The Ancien Regime'' (Macmillan, 1986) *''

The Oxford History of the French Revolution ''The Oxford History of the French Revolution'' (1989; second edition 2002; third edition 2018) is a history of the French Revolution by the British historian William Doyle, in which the author analyzes the impact of the revolutionary events in ...

'' (Oxford University Press, 1989; second edition, 2002
third edition, 2018
*''Venality: the Sale of Offices in Eighteenth-Century France'' (Oxford University Press, 1996) *''Jansenism: Catholic Resistance to Authority from the Reformation to the French Revolution'' (Macmillan, 1999) *''The French Revolution: A Very Short Introduction'' (Oxford University Press, 2001) *''Aristocracy and Its Enemies in the Age of Revolution'' (Oxford University Press, 2009)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Doyle, William 1942 births Living people British historians Historians of France Historians of the French Revolution People educated at Bridlington School Fellows of the British Academy