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This book attempts to introduce students to the major events that make up the story of the French Revolution and to the different ways in which historians have interpreted them. It covers the relationship between France and the United States.
A Marxist analysis of the causes and course of the French Revolution argues that it can be understood, on all levels, only in terms of class struggle.
From an award-winning historian, a “vivid” (Wall Street Journal) account of the revolution that created the modern world The French Revolution’s principles of liberty and equality still shape our ideas of a just society—even if, after more than two hundred years, their meaning is more contested than ever before. In A New World Begins, Jeremy D. Popkin offers a riveting account of the revolution that puts the reader in the thick of the debates and the violence that led to the overthrow of the monarchy and the establishment of a new society. We meet Mirabeau, Robespierre, and Danton, in all their brilliance and vengefulness; we witness the failed escape and execution of Louis XVI; we see women demanding equal rights and Black slaves wresting freedom from revolutionaries who hesitated to act on their own principles; and we follow the rise of Napoleon out of the ashes of the Reign of Terror. Based on decades of scholarship, A New World Begins will stand as the definitive treatment of the French Revolution.
Beginning with a discussion of familiar images of the French Revolution, this work looks at how the ancien régime became ancien as well as examining cases in which achievement failed to match ambition.
A Short History of the French Revolution is an up-to-date survey of the French Revolution and Napoleonic era that introduces readers to the origins and events of this turbulent period in French history, and historians’ interpretations of these events. The book covers all aspects of the Revolution, including the political, social, and cultural origins of the Revolution, and its causes, events, and aftermath, to provide readers with a full, and yet concise, overview of the Revolution that helps them easily understand the key elements of the subject. Fully updated and revised, this new edition allows students to engage with the most current work on the subject with increased attention given to women’s role in the Revolution, full coverage of the struggles over race and slavery, a new emphasis on the populist element in revolutionary politics, and an expanded discussion of the historiography of the era. Supported by learning objectives, critical thinking questions, and suggestions for further reading, this is the perfect introduction to the French Revolution for students of French and European History in the late eighteenth century.
A bold new history of the French Revolution from the standpoint of the peasants, workers, women and sans culottes The assault on the Bastille, the Reign of Terror, Danton mocking his executioner, Robespierre dispensing a fearful justice, and the archetypal gadfly Marat—the events and figures of the French Revolution have exercised a hold on the historical imagination for more than 200 years. It has been a template for heroic insurrection and, to more conservative minds, a cautionary tale. In the hands of Eric Hazan, author of The Invention of Paris, the revolution becomes a rational and pure struggle for emancipation. In this new history, the first significant account of the French Revolution in over twenty years, Hazan maintains that it fundamentally changed the Western world—for the better. Looking at history from the bottom up, providing an account of working people and peasants, Hazan asks, how did they see their opportunities? What were they fighting for? What was the Terror and could it be justified? And how was the revolution stopped in its tracks? The People’s History of the French Revolution is a vivid retelling of events, bringing them to life with a multitude of voices. Only in this way, by understanding the desires and demands of the lower classes, can the revolutionary bloodshed and the implacable will of a man such as Robespierre be truly understood.
Contesting the French Revolution provides an insightful overview of one of history’s most significant events, as well as examining the most significant historiographical debates about this period. Explores the causes, events, and consequences of the French Revolution Offers a stimulating analysis of the most controversial debates: Were the events of 1789 a social revolution or a political accident? Did they mark the rise of industrial capitalism or the birth of modern democracy? Was Napoleon Bonaparte an heir to the ideals of 1789 or a betrayer of the Revolution? Shows how historical interpretation of the French Revolution has been influenced by the changing political and social currents of the last 200 years – from the Russian Revolution to the fall of the Berlin Wall – and how historical study has shifted from a political focus to social and cultural approaches in more recent years.
The French Revolution: A History in Documents explores the rapidly evolving political culture of the French Revolution through first-hand accounts of the revolutionary (and counterrevolutionary) actors themselves. It demonstrates how radical Enlightenment philosophy fused with a governmental crisis to create a moment of new political possibilities unlike any the world had previously seen. In so doing, the French and their allies generated a template for revolutionary possibility from which virtually all subsequent political movements – liberalism, abolitionism, socialism, anarchism, conservatism, feminism and human rights included – derived inspiration. As well as providing an invaluable general introduction, vital contextual notes and thematic bibliographies, Micah Alpaugh selects a fascinating range of pieces, drawing on Parisian, provincial, colonial, and even international voices. From Enlightened dissent to apologias for terror, from declarations of human rights to accounts of slave rebellions, from passionate arguments for democratization to the authoritarian pronouncements of Napoleonic rule, this book presents the French Revolution's evolution in all its awesome complexity. In addition to classic texts, Alpaugh includes many lesser-known sources, a number of which are translated into English here for the first time. This unique collection of 13 visual sources and over 90 documents, incorporating perspectives from across class, gender, race and nationality, provides you with insights into the fervent debates, pronouncements and proposals that spawned modern politics.
