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

About this book

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.