Description: This volume, comprising Part I of the authors classic work Revolutionary France 1770-1880, offers a vivid narrative and radical reinterpretation of the years surrounding the momentous events of 1789 and their aftermath. During this period there were not one, but two revolutions: by intent the first was egalitarian, the second- Bonapartes authoritarian. The tension between the two characterized the period and was to shape the Republic that eventually emerged from the ruins of the ancien regime.
Review Quotes: Reviews of the parent volume Revolutionary France 1770-1880:
"An outstanding work of synthesis and imagination." The Times
"This book is the best - and, especially, the best written - history of French politics during these years that I know. Conceived in the analytical tradition of Constant and Tocqueville, written in the narrative, learned, and convincing." Patrice Higonnet, Harvard University