"What is the Third Estate?"

Pamphlet written by Abbe Sieyes in January 1789. It declared the nobility to be a useless caste that should be abolished. Only the Third Estate was necessary and was identical with the nation - should therefore be sovereign. Through these writings of Sieyes the ideas of Rousseau ‘s Social Contract entered the revolution. They also added to the fear between the classes even before the meeting of the Estates General.