How does a great power arise and why does it die? At what point do microscopic cracks appear in the foundation of her majestic building, which, growing, ultimately lead to its collapse? How does that “devastation” arise in the minds of the inhabitants of a prosperous country, which prompts them to plunge their state into a bloody whirlpool of civil strife? The answers to all these questions are given by the history of the Old Order in France, which began with the emergence of an absolute monarchy there and ended with the French Revolution of the 18th century. It is this story that this book is dedicated to.