A Concise History of the French Revolution (Critical Issues in World and International History)

Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc, 2007. First U.S. Edition . Trade Paperback. Fine. 6" x 9. 286 Pages Indexed. Highlighting on pages 144-147, 213, and 214 and a careful thumb-thru did not reveal more. Remaining pages are near flawless. This concise yet rich introduction to the French Revolution explores the origins, development, and eventual decline of a movement that defines France to this day. Through an accessible chronological narrative, Sylvia Neely explains the complex events, conflicting groups, and rapid changes that characterized this critical period in French history. She traces the fundamental transformations in government and society that forced the French to come up with new ways of thinking about their place in the world, ultimately leading to liberalism, conservatism, terrorism, and modern nationalism. Throughout, the author focuses on the essential political events that propelled the Revolution, at the same time deftly interweaving the intellectual, social, diplomatic, military, and cultural history of the time. Neely explains how the difficult choices made by the royal government and the revolutionaries alike not only brought on the collapse of the Old Regime but moved the nation into increasingly radical policies, to the Terror, and finally to the rise of Napoleon Bonaparte. Written with clarity and nuance, this work offers a deeply knowledgeable understanding of the political possibilities available at any given moment in the course of the Revolution, placing them in a broad social context. All readers interested in France and revolutionary history will find this an engaging and rewarding read. Contents in Nine Chapters: The Ancient Regime Its Critics and Supporters, The Financial Crisis, The Estates General and the National Assembly, Creating the New Regime, Polarization and the Flight Varennes, The Failure of Constitutional Government, The Convention, Terror and War, and Thermidor and the Directory.