Book Reviews : What is the Third Estate? By EMMANUEL JOSEPH SIEYÈS. (Tr. into English by M. Blondel; New York: Frederick A. Praeger, 1963. Pp. 214. $5.00.)

• DOI: 10.1177/106591296401700463
• Date: 01 December 1964
• Author: Peter A. Toma
• Published date: 01 December 1964
• Subject Matter: Articles

854
ing that the South is changing rapidly. An old order is dying. However, the New
South will still be somehow different from the rest of the nation and will still be
recognizable as the South.
CLARK S. KNOWLTON
Texas Western College
What is the Third Estate? By EMMANUEL JOSEPH SIEYÈS. (Tr. into English by
M. Blondel; New York: Frederick A. Praeger, 1963. Pp. 214. $5.00.)
For political scientists this book represents a classic -
for practical politicians
a must in the art of democratic nationalism. This essay, first published in January
1789, is an appeal to the French &dquo;people&dquo; to assert themselves against the two privi-
leged orders that prevailed in state and society alike. This is the book which provided
the French revolutionaries with inspiration and a blueprint for the great French
Revolution. The echoes of Sieyes’ ideas, national unity, social equality and popular
sovereignty, are as strong today (especially in the newly independent countries of
the world) as they were two centuries ago on the continent of Europe.
&dquo;The nation,&dquo; according to Sieyes, &dquo;is prior to everything. It is the source of
everything. Its will is always legal; indeed it is the law itself.&dquo; Thus &dquo;the nation&dquo; and
&dquo;the people&dquo; are one. The unity of the nation must not be violated by the privileges
of individuals, classes, and localities. The Third Estate (the commons who had to
sustain the main burden of taxation) were to challenge the privileges and powers of
the other two, the clergy and nobility. According to Sieyes, the Third Estate is, or
must be, everything. In France, it has been nothing until now; the Third Estate is a
complete nation in itself; providing the whole rank of the army, of the church, of the
law, of the administration, of every profession and trade and branch of industry. The
Third Estate could dispense with the rest of the nation, but the rest of &dquo;the nation&dquo;
could not exist without it. Therefore, the lofty...