Synopses & Reviews
This second edition of the most authoritative and comprehensive history of the French Revolution draws on a wealth of new research in order to reassess the greatest of all revolutions. It includes a generous chronology of events and an extended bibliographical essay providing an examination of the historiography of the Revolution. Beginning with the accession of Louis XVI in 1774, leading historian William Doyle traces the history of France through revolution, terror, and counter-terror, to the triumph of Napoleon in 1802, along the way analyzing the impact of these events in France upon the rest of Europe. He explores how a movement which began with optimism and general enthusiasm soon became a tragedy, not only for the ruling orders, but for millions of ordinary people all over Europe who paid the price for the destruction of the old political order and the struggle to establish a new one.
Highly readable and meticulously researched, The Oxford History of the French Revolution will provide new insight into one of the most important events in European history.
Review
"Traditional, scholarly, narrative history...a clear and balanced picture of the origins of the Revolution."--The New York Times Book Review
"A fair, and remarkably complete, account of both the Revolution itself and the years that preceded it...a book that sets itself to cover an immense amount of ground and ends with a clear and well-balanced final chapter in which he outlines the many gains, and the often heavy cost, of the revolutionary years ...thorough and scholarly appraisal of French cultural values."--New York Newsday
Review from previous edition... "An outstanding model of clarity and informed scholarship."--Simon Schama, New Republic
"Doyle's book, in its readability, its clarity and its balance, is certainly the best of the general studies of the Revolution that have recently appeared; it will appeal both to the general reader and to the historian. And it deals with the subject, rather than with those who have already written about it."--Richard Griffiths, Times Higher Educational Supplement (UK)
"A work of breath-taking range which deserves to reach a wide popular market. It is the fullest history to appear of the Revolutionary era, of the events preceding it and of its impact on a wider world. Masterfully written."--The Observer (UK)
Review
"Traditional, scholarly, narrative history...a clear and balanced picture of the origins of the Revolution."--
The New York Times Book Review"A fair, and remarkably complete, account of both the Revolution itself and the years that preceded it...a book that sets itself to cover an immense amount of ground and ends with a clear and well-balanced final chapter in which he outlines the many gains, and the often heavy cost, of the revolutionary years ...thorough and scholarly appraisal of French cultural values."--New York Newsday
Review from previous edition... "An outstanding model of clarity and informed scholarship."--Simon Schama, New Republic
"Doyle's book, in its readability, its clarity and its balance, is certainly the best of the general studies of the Revolution that have recently appeared; it will appeal both to the general reader and to the historian. And it deals with the subject, rather than with those who have already written about it."--Richard Griffiths, Times Higher Educational Supplement (UK)
"A work of breath-taking range which deserves to reach a wide popular market. It is the fullest history to appear of the Revolutionary era, of the events preceding it and of its impact on a wider world. Masterfully written."--The Observer (UK)
About the Author
William Doyle is Professor of History and Chairman of the School of History at the University of Bristol. He is author of
Origins of the French Revolution, praised by
Historian as "an impressive piece of historical writing and an important contribution to French revolutionary scholarship."
Table of Contents
List of maps
Preface
1. France under Louis XVI
2. Enlightened Opinion
3. Crisis and Collapse, 1776-1788
4. The Estates-General, September 1788-July 1789
5. The Principles of 1789 and the Reform of France
6. The Breakdown of Revolutionary Consensus, 1790-1791
7. Europe and the Revolution, 1788-1791
8. The Republican Revolution, October 1791-January 1793
9. War Against Europe, 1792-1797
10. The Revolt of the Provinces
11. Government by Terror, 1793-1794
12. Thermidor, 1794-1795
13. Counter-Revolution, 1789-1795
14. The Directory, 1795-1799
15. Occupied Europe, 1794-1799
16. An End to Revolution, 1799-1802
17. The Revolution in Perspective
Notes
Appendix I: Chronology of the French Revolution
Appendix II: The Revolutionary Calendar
Bibliography: The Revolution and its Historians
Index