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ALTHOUGH THE DISTINCTION between the politics of the left and the right is commonly assumed in the media and in treatments of political science and history, the terms are used so loosely that the student and the general reader are often confused: What exactly are the terms left and right supposed to imply? In this two-volume encyclopedia, we have assembled over 450 articles on individuals, movements, political parties, and ideological principles, with those usually thought of as left in the left-hand volume and those considered on the right, in the right-hand volume. The terms left and right are derived from the political divisions in the French Constituent Assembly, formed during the French Revolution in 1790. Sitting on the right of the assembly were those who favored the preservation of the monarchy and a more moderate course of change, the Girondins, while on the left in the assembly sat those left ...