Synopses & Reviews
Beginning with a discussion of familiar images of the French Revolution, garnered from Dickens, Baroness Orczy, and Tolstoy, as well as the legends of let them eat cake, and tricolours, Doyle leads the reader to the realization that we are still living with developments and consequences of the French Revolution such as decimalization, and the whole ideology of human rights. Continuing with a brief survey of the old regime and how it collapsed, Doyle continues to ellucidate how the revolution happened: why did the revolutionaries quarrel with the king, the church and the rest of Europe, why this produced Terror, and finally how it accomplished rule by a general. The revolution destroyed the age-old cultural, institutional and social structures in France and beyond. This book looks at how the ancien regime became ancien as well as examining cases in which achievement failed to match ambition. Doyle explores the legacy of the revolution in the form of rationality in public affairs and responsible government, and finishes his examination of the revolution with a discussion of why it has been so controversial.
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Review
"[Doyle] writes on the French Revolution with more understanding, balance and clarity than any other historian, living or dead."--Tim Blanning, University of Cambridge
Review
"[Doyle] writes on the French Revolution with more understanding, balance and clarity than any other historian, living or dead."--Tim Blanning, University of Cambridge
Review
“Every revolutionary party, every oppressed people, every oppressed working class can claim Jaurès, his memory, his example, and his person, for our own.”
Review
“Jaurès' brilliant analysis is as refreshing and controversial today as it was over a century ago. It resonates with the passion and eloquence of this great political leader while at the same time sustaining a rigorous Marxist analysis of the social and economic forces behind the Revolution. Its appearance in this edition is to be warmly welcomed.”
Review
“Jaurès’ Socialist History is a classic of historical writing which laid the foundations for so many later accounts of the French Revolution. Jaurès vividly depicts the drama of the Revolution, the triumphs and the setbacks, the bloodshed and the hope, but always with an eye to the future, to how the Revolution opened the way to human emancipation.”
Synopsis
Includes bibliographical references (119-123) and index.
Synopsis
Jean Jaurès was the celebrated French Socialist Party leader, assassinated at the outbreak of the First World War in 1914. Published just a few years before his death, his magisterial
A Socialist History of the French Revolution, has endured for over a century as one of the most influential accounts of the French Revolution ever to be published. Mitchell Abidors long-overdue translation and abridgement of Jaurèss original six volumes brings this exceptional work to an Anglophone audience for the first time.
Written in the midst of his activities as leader of the Socialist Party and editor of its newspaper, LHumanité, Jaurès intended the book to serve as both a guide and an inspiration to political activity, which is just as relevant today.
About the Author
Jean Jaurès (1859-1914) was the leader of the French Socialist Party, which opposed Jules Guesde's revolutionary Socialist Party of France. An antimilitarist, Jaurès was assassinated at the outbreak of WWI.Mitchell Abidor's books include anthologies of the anarchist writings of Victor Serge, on the propagandists of the deed, the Paris Commune, the left of the French Revolution, and French anarchist individualists.Mitchell Abidor's books include anthologies of the anarchist writings of Victor Serge, on the propagandists of the deed, the Paris Commune, the left of the French Revolution, and French anarchist individualists.
Table of Contents
Introduction by Henry Heller
Translators preface
1. Introduction
2. The Causes of the Revolution
3. July 14, 1789
4. National Lands
5. The Revolutionary “Journées”
6. The Flight to Varennes
7. The Insurrection of August 10, 1792
8. The September Massacres
9. The Battle of Valmy
10. The Trial of the King
11. The Enragés Against the High Cost of Living
12. The Revolution of May 31 and June 2, 1793
13. Marats Assassination
14. Dechristianization
15. The Dictatorship of Public Safety and the Fight against the Factions
16. The Fall of Robespierre
17. How Should We Judge the Revolutionaries?
Bibliography
Index