Publisher's Synopsis
This history of the French Revolution of 1789 has been published to mark the bicentenary of its outbreak and draws on a generation of extensive research and scholarly debate to reappraise this greatest of all revolutions, and its impact upon France and Europe.;Opening with the accession of Louis XVI in 1774, it traces the history of France through revolution, terror and counter-revolution, to the triumph of Napoleon in 1802. The author shows how a movement which began with optimism and general enthusiasm soon became a tragedy, not only for the ruling orders, but for the millions of ordinary people all over Europe whose lives were disrupted by religious upheaval and civil and international war.
