Citizenship is a fundamental concept in social life, entailing rights, obligations, and relationships with others. Modern citizenship did not emerge from a philosopher's study or a laboratory experiment; instead, it was decisively shaped in the French Revolution. This book is about the processes by which that happened.

The creation of a new kind of citizenship was not a simple act. The rights and obligations of citizens were going to be extensive; they needed to be defined and debated. The topics discussed in this book, which detail these rights and obligations, will be of interest to French historians as well as to political scientists and sociologists.