Great book on French revolution

[EastOfEden]

The most significant revolution of the 18th century was not the American revolution -- we were a piddling colony of England and we just wanted to have some level of representation in parliament if we were to be taxed. The most significant by far was the French revolution. Many of you may think you know that revolution well, but a new book by Jeremey Popkin, A New World Begins, may change your mind. It's one of these rare finds -- a nonfiction book that is a page turner. It sorts out a very complicated set of political movements from pre revolutionary days in France through the rise of Napoleon. Names that you have some glimmer of understanding of - Robespierre, Lafayette, etc. are fleshed out, as are events like the attack on the Bastille (they were looking for munitions, not political prisoners, and only found 7 prisoners in the entire prison), the Terror, Jacobins, etc.

Really a good book.

 

[Scarlet Ripper]

I will have to check this out, sounds interesting.

 

[Huskerwisdom]

Sounds good. A great resource/collection of writings on the French Revolution is from the U of Chicago's Western Civ Series volume 7 (University of Chicago Readings in Western Civilization, Volume 7: The Old Regime and the French Revolution)

Mostly source/primary documents translated and they give a great sense of the chaos in interpreting the events and in the events

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