Synopses & Reviews
During the past twenty-five years, the historiography of the French Revolution has experienced a revolution of its own. Utilizing developments in such areas as anthropology and critical theory, scholars have begun to ask new questions and to devise new ways of understanding the period.
The Rise and Fall of the French Revolution is a collection of seventeen pathbreaking articles which originally appeared in the Journal of Modern History. Contributors include Keith Michael Baker, Suzanne Desan, Bill Edmonds, François Furet, Vivian R. Gruder, Paul Hanson, James N. Hood, Lynn Hunt, David Lansky, Colin Lucas, John Markoff, Mona Ozouf, Alison Patrick, Jeremy D. Popkin, William H. Sewell, Jr., Theda Skocpol, Timothy Tackett, and Dale Van Kley. In addition, a substantial introduction by the editor discusses the evolution of the history of the period and how the individual contributors have shaped the debate.
This volume not only chronicles the rise and fall of the French Revolution but also introduces the reader to the different approaches being employed by the most eminent historians working in the field. The result is a volume on the French Revolution that offers a compelling combination of information and opinion, narrative and interpretation.
Table of Contents
Introduction: The Rise and Fall of the French Revolution
T. C. W. Blanning
Church, State, and the Ideological Origins of the French Revolution: The
Debate over The General Assembly of the Gallican Clergy in 1765
Dale Van Kley
French Political Thought at the Accession of Louis XVI
Keith Michael Baker
"Public Opinion" at the End of the Old Regime
Mona Ozouf
A Mutation in Elite Political Culture: The French Notables and the Defense
of Property and Participation, 1787
Vivian R. Gruder
Peasant Grievances and Peasant Insurrection: France in 1789
John Markoff
The Monarchy and Procedures for the Elections of 1789
Francois Furet
The Crowd and Politics between Ancien Regime and Revolution in France
Colin Lucas
The Second Estate in the Constituent Assembly, 1789-1791
Alison Patrick
War and Terror in French Revolutionary Discourse (1792-1794)
Mona Ozouf
Ideologies and Social Revolutions: Reflections on the French Case
William H. Sewell, Jr
Cultural Idioms and Political Ideologies in the Revolutionary
Reconstruction of State Power: A Rejoinder to Sewell
Theda Skocpol
The West in France in 1789: The Religious Factor in the Origins of the
Counterrevolution
Timothy Tackett
Redefining Revolutionary Liberty: The Rhetoric of Religious Revival during
the French Revolution
Suzanne Desan
"Federalism" and Urban Revolt in France in 1793
Bill Edmonds
The Royalist Press in the Reign of Terror
Jeremy D. Popkin
Patterns of Popular Protest in the French Revolution: The Conceptual
Contribution of the Gard
James N. Hood
The Failure of the Liberal Republic in France, 1795-1799: The Road to
Brumaire
Lynn Hunt, David Lansky, Paul Hanson.
Index