d want. Even to those who gave thought to the poor it seemed not impossible that every man might own a few acres or a shop . . . This ideal remained alive well into the nineteenth century. Experience has not justified these hopes (p. 218).
Actually, the ideal of capitalism remains alive in the late 20th century, and is more alive than ever after the collapse of its rival communism in the Soviet Union. Nevertheless, experience continues to teach us that that ideal still does not justify such hope for economic equality. Like all apologists for the processes of democracy, Lefebvre brushes aside the gross inequities brought by the handmaiden of democracy --- capitalism.
Certainly what the revolutionaries did in France was a remarkable achievement, and one which advanced the cause of freedom relative to dictatorship. However, Lefebvre, writing in 1939,
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