THE UNIQUE DECLINE OF MORTALITY IN REVOLUTIONARY FRANCE

This article seeks to draw historians' attention to a neglected recons truction of the French population and its mortality rates developed by the Institut National d'Etudes Demographiques in the 1970s. The recon struction shows a sharp decline in French mortality rates, beginning i n the 1790s and continuing through the 1820s. This conflicts with rece nt historiography stressing the negative effects of the Revolution. Th is article contends that the reconstruction is plausible and that the French mortality decline was unique in Europe in this period. In turn, this suggests that the Revolution had a much more favorable impact th an many historians would have us believe.