Paris in the Terror: June 1789 - July 1794 by Stanely Loomis

Loomis examines the crucial period of the "Terror," going into detail about the lives, history and events that drove the key players in the Terror to their final fates. A detailed, though occasionally monarchistic, account of a bloody era in Paris.

The French Revolution (Rewriting Histories) by Gary Kates

The latest in the Rewriting History series, Gary Kates' second edition studies all aspects of the French Revolution from its origins, through its development, and examines the consequences of this major historical event." "Completely updated with new research and articles, the book brings together key texts at the forefront of research and interpretation. It challenges orthodox assumptions concerning the origins, development and long-term historical repercussions of the Revolution.

The Memoirs of Madame Roland by Marie-Jeanne Roland de la Platiere

Married at the age of 25 to an austere local government official, Madame Roland and her husband moved to Paris at the beginning of the Revolution where they played active roles in the ever-changing political scene.

Roland met frequently with leading Republicans, Jacobins and Girondins in his apartment with his wife at his side. In 1792 he was unexpectedly appointed Minister of the Interiour, only to fall rapidly from grace. Madame Roland's memoirs detail the drama of his rise to power, followed by his resignation, denunciation, and ultimately her own arrest.

Hey OP. I've read the first 2 and they are probably the first two books I'd recommend, so good going!

Just some other French Rev historical stuff which I found good:

There are several decent and interesting biographies of Saint-Just: Geoffrey Bruun and Norman Hampson wrote the two most interesting. I find Saint-Just particularly fascinating because he was only a teenager when he became Robespierre's intellectual right-hand man, basically, and was 26 when guillotined beside Robespierre. He's also the only major revolutionairre to be depicted in an anime (Rose of Versailles).

Lynn Hunt's works about the use of propaganda and pornography in the debates over the Revolution and the execution of Louis and Marie-Antoinette are pretty fascinating: The Family Romance of the French Revolution is the most recent, but there were 2 other interesting historical studies she wrote before that one.

There's also a great out-of-print sourcebook which contains all the documents on The Ninth of Thermidor----I think edited by Bienvenu? something like that.

OP, I am an anarchist that is interested in reading about some of the early ideas of anarchism based in the french revolution. Would you, by any chance, be able to recommend any books? One historical anarchistic book I enjoyed was Blood of Spain by Ronald Fraiser.

Festivals and the French Revolution by Mona Ozouf

istorians have recognized the importance of the revolutionary festival as a symbol of the Revolution. But they have differed widely in their interpretations of what that symbol meant and have considered the festivals as diverse as the rival political groups that conceived and organized them. Against this older vision, Ozouf argues for the fundamental coherence and profound unity of the festival as both event and register of reference and attitude. By comparing the most ideologically opposed festivals (those of Reason and the Supreme Being, for instance), she shows that they clearly share a common aim, which finds expression in a mutual ceremonial and symbolic vocabulary. Through a brilliant discussion of the construction, ordering, and conduct of the festival Ozouf demonstrates how the continuity of the images, allegories, ceremonials, and explicit functions can be seen as the Revolution's own commentary on itself.

From a political theory perspective, the debates that people like Burke, Paine, Wollstonecraft etc had on the validity of the French Revolution are pretty interesting stuff. Burke's "Reflections", Paine's "Rights of Man", Wollstonecraft's "Rights of Men" are well worth reading (Wollstonecraft in particularly is awesome in how fucking hard she owns Burke, seriously it's pretty brutal). Also a lot of later thought on revolution (IE Marxist thought) is influenced by the events of the Revolution. And Hannah Arendt's "On Revolution" deals at length with the meaning of the French and American revolutions in a pretty interesting way.

>>1995012
Thanks for the tip about Saint-Just! I've been having a hard time finding biographies about certain figures because they tend to be on one extreme or the other - evil or saintly.

>>1995031
Hmm, I can't think of anything off the top of my head, but I'll see what I can find as I'm going through books!

Fashion in the French Revolution by Aileen Ribeiro

Ribeiro traces the changing sphere of fashion and beauty as the French revolution developed and spread throughout France. What impact did the revolution - both the changing nature of the government and the tide of public opinion against aristocracy - have on the clothes that men and women wore? Fashion in the French Revolution is an important volume for anyone interested in the study of public appearance during this chaotic period.

A Critical Dictionary of the French Revolution by Arthur Goldhammer (translator)

Neither dictionary, in the traditional sense of the word, nor encyclopedia, it is deliberately limited to some ninety-nine entries organized alphabetically by key words and themes under five major headings: events, including the Estates General and the Terror; actors, such as Marie Antoinette, Marat, and Napoleon Bonaparte; institutions and creations, among them Revolutionary Calendar and Suffrage; ideas, covering, for example, Ancien Régime, the American Revolution, and Liberty; and historians and commentators, from Hegel to Tocqueville. In addition, there are synoptic indexes of names and themes that give the reader easy access to the entire volume as well as a key to its profound coherence.

What unifies all the varied topics brought together in this dictionary is their authors' effort to be "critical." As such, the book rejects the dogmatism of closed systems and definitive interpretations. Its aim is less to make a complete inventory of the findings of the history of the French Revolution than to take stock of what remains problematical about those findings; this work thus offers the additional special quality of incorporating the rich historiographical literature unceasingly elaborated since 1789.

The French Revolution and the People by David Andress

Although the French Revolution started with the resistance of a minority to absolutist government, it soon spread to involve the whole nation and the men and women who made up by far the largest part of it were the peasantry. The French Revolution and the People is a portrait of the common people of France, and of their engagement in revolutionary struggle in town and country: from Paris to Lyon to the Vendeacute;e and the other regions of France. Peasants and townsfolk formed the ranks of revolutionary patriot armies, and fought as counterrevolutionary guerrillas for church and king. Others fought only for the right to be left alone. The French Revolution and the People is a vivid story of conflict, violence, and death, but also a story of the people's eventual triumph for freedom and prosperity.

Liberty: The Lives and Times of Six Women in Revolutionary France by Lucy Moore

"Woman is born free and lives equal to man in her rights," declared Olympe de Gouges in 1791. Throughout the French Revolution, women, inspired by a longing for liberty and equality, played a vital role in stoking the fervor and idealism of those years. In her compelling history of the Revolution, Lucy Moore paints a vivid portrait of six extraordinary women who risked everything for the chance to exercise their ambition and make their mark on history.

Traumatic Politics: The Deputies and the King in the Early French Revolution by Barry M. Shapiro

Examines the ramifications of the fear of imminent death that many National Assembly deputies felt as they anticipated an attack from the soldiers of Louis XVI in the days preceding the fall of the Bastille, at the beginning of the French Revolution

When the King Took Flight by Timothy Tackett (*although I wonder about this book, because Louis XVI/Marie Antoinette/children/Louis' sister were not fleeing France, but heading towards a fortress in the countryside... hopefully it's just a summary error?)

For scholars and general readers alike, the French Revolution remains a perennially favorite historical event. And one of the most intriguing as well as pivotal occurrences in the whole revolutionary period took place on the night of June 21, 1791, when "something quite extraordinary did happen" that "changed the history of France." In the little town of Varennes, in northeast France near the border of what is now Belgium, townspeople halted the progress of Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette and the rest of the royal family on their disguised flight from the country to escape the growing frightfulness of the Revolution. The entire planning process of their run for freedom is explained here with almost thriller-novel-like tension. The royal family's disguise was seen through by the time they arrived in Varennes, and their forced return to Paris proved traumatic. Tackett explores the ramifications of the event on the direction the Revolution subsequently took--namely, toward terror and republicanism. The book's approachable style, clear ideas, and excellent pacing guarantee general readership interest.

>>1995039
I really need to get on reading those - for some reason I keep putting off reading certain works!

Rebel Daughters: Women and the French Revolution by Sara E. Melzer and Leslie W. Rabine

This interdisciplinary collection of essays examines the important and paradoxical relation between women and the French Revolution. Although the male leaders of the Revolution depended on the women's active militant participation, they denied to women the rights they helped to establish. At the same time that women were banned from the political sphere, "woman" was transformed into an allegorical figure which became the very symbol of (masculine) Liberty and Equality. This volume analyzes how the revolutionary process constructed a new gender system at the foundation of modern liberal culture.

The Road from Versailles: Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette, and the Fall of the French Monarchy by Munro Price

What becomes of leaders when absolute power is wrested from their hands? How does dramatic political change affect once-absolute monarchs? In acclaimed historian Munro Price’s powerful new book, he confronts one of the enduring mysteries of the French Revolution---what were the true actions and feelings of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette as they watched their sovereignty collapse?

Dragged back from Versailles to Paris by the crowd in October 1789, the king and queen became prisoners in the capital. They were compelled for their own safety to approve the Revolution and its agenda. Yet, in deep secrecy, they soon began to develop a very different, and dangerous, strategy. The precautions they took against discovery, and the bloody overthrow of the monarchy three years later, dispersed or obliterated most of the clues to their real policy. Much of this evidence has until now remained unknown.

A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, A Vindication of the Rights of Men by Mary Wollstonecraft and Janet M. Todd (editor)

This volume brings together the major political writings of Mary Wollstonecraft in the order in which they appeared in the revolutionary 1790s. It traces her passionate and indignant response to the excitement of the early days of the French Revolution and then her uneasiness at its later bloody phase. It reveals her developing understanding of women's involvement in the political and social life of the nation and her growing awareness of the relationship between politics and economics and between political institutions and the individual. In personal terms, the works show her struggling with a belief in the perfectibility of human nature through rational education, a doctrine that became weaker under the onslaught of her own miserable experience and the revolutionary massacres. Janet Todd's introduction illuminates the progress of Wollstonecraft's thought, showing that a reading of all three works allows her to emerge as a more substantial political writer than a study of The Rights of Woman alone can reveal.

The French Revolution: A Document Collection by Laura Mason and Tracey Rizzo

A volume on the political, cultural, and social aspects of the French Revolution, told through documents, letters, and briefs. Features many documents translated into English for the first time.

The Terror: The Merciless War for Freedom in Revolutionary France by David Andress

For two hundred years, the Terror has haunted the imagination of the West. The descent of the French Revolution from rapturous liberation into an orgy of apparently pointless bloodletting has been the focus of countless reflections on the often malignant nature of humanity and the folly of revolution. David Andress, a leading historian of the French Revolution, presents a radically different account of the Terror. In a remarkably vivid and page-turning work of history, he transports the reader from the pitched battles on the streets of Paris to the royal family's escape through secret passageways in the Tuileries palace, and across the landscape of the tragic last years of the Revolution. The violence, he shows, was a result of dogmatic and fundamentalist thinking: dreadful decisions were made by groups of people who believed they were still fighting for freedom but whose survival was threatened by famine, external war, and counter-revolutionaries within the fledging new state. Urgent questions emerge from Andress's trenchant reassessment: When is it right to arbitrarily detain those suspected of subversion? When does an earnest patriotism become the rationale for slaughter?

>>1995127
Just want to comment on this again - it's incredibly well-written, and basically total ownage of Edmund Burke in every way.

"What were the outrages of a day to these continual miseries? Let those sorrows hide their diminished head before the tremendous mountain of woe that thus defaces our globe! Man preys on man; and you mourn for the idle tapestry that decorated a gothic pile, and the dronish bell that summoned the fat priest to prayer. You mourn for the empty pageant of a name, when slavery flaps her wing, and the sick heart retires to die in lonely wilds, far from the abodes of men. Did the pangs you felt for insulted nobility, the anguish that rent your heart when the gorgeous robes were torn off the idol human weakness had set up, deserve to be compared with the long-drawn sigh of melancholy reflection, when misery and vice are thus seen to haunt our steps, and swim on the top of every cheering prospect? Why is our fancy to be appalled by terrific perspectives of a hell beyond the grave?–Hell stalks abroad;–the lash resounds on the slave’s naked sides; and the sick wretch, who can no longer earn the sour bread of unremitting labour, steals to a ditch to bid the world a long good night–or, neglected in some ostentatious hospital, breathes his last amidst the laugh of mercenary attendants.

Such misery demands more than tears–I pause to recollect myself; and smother the contempt I feel rising for your rhetorical flourishes and infantine sensibility."

Mary Wollstonecraft was awesome as hell, basically. Mary Wollstonecraft is cooler than you.

>>1995143
oh snap. Weren't his Reflections written in 1790, as well? It's not like anything relatively terrible had even happened, well, waving piked heads at royal children but still. But still.

Blood Sisters: The French Revolution in Women's Memory by Marilyn Yalom

With the publication of Blood Sisters, the voices of the women who witnessed the French Revolution are finally restored to history. They left us an invaluable legacy - some eighty accounts of what they saw and experienced. These chronicles range from the sixteen-page testimonial of the Widow Bault, wife of the concierge in Marie-Antoinette's prison, to the ten-volume memoirs of the prolific writer Mme de Genlis; from the dictated life story of an illiterate peasant to acknowledged classics by Mme Roland and Mme de Stael. No other literature in the Western world offers such an early treasury of women recording their personal histories within the context of a great political cataclysm. Their stories describe how they participated, individually and collectively, in the revolutionary saga and how they sometimes succeeded in manipulating a political system designed to exclude them.

>>1995161
Oh, and to note - READ THIS BOOK. If you are interested in women and the Revolution, it's just an incredible read. Not only do you get information about women (specific and general) during the Revolution but it's a great analysis of how those women wrote their memoirs and presented themselves for history. I wouldn't have minded if this book had been over 600 pages... too bad it's barely 300.

>>1995154
Yeah, he basically FREAKS OUT about the dirty peasants daring to bother Marie Antoinette, who he treats as the most perfect beautiful princess in all of history. I have sympathy for his actual arguments, but man, the dude's rhetoric was overblown as fuck, and Wollstonecraft rightfully blows him out of the water.

>>1995161
>>1995170
This sounds Real Cool and I'm definitely going to read it.

Words of Fire, Deeds of Blood: The Mob, The Monarchy, and the French Revolution by Olivier Bernier

Clacking along like a tumbrel on its way to the guillotine, this engrossing history of the French Revolution starts with the storming of the Bastille in 1789 and ends with Marie Antoinette's execution in 1793. Within these four tumultuous years, an entire social-political order crumbled. Though the vivid narrative occasionally threatens to collapse into a royal-family drama, Bernier ably works in the clash of personalities, political maneuvers, upheavals in daily life, the friction between classes jockeying for power. The author of Lafayette and Secrets of Marie Antoinette hands out no bonbons. We see Marat, counterposed to a self-deluded, myopic Louis XVI, lying about the supposed dangers of a counter-revolutionary threat; a conceited Lafayette "lacking both common sense and decisiveness"; and reactionary Catholic priests, here held responsible for the "so-called religious disturbances" that swept the countryside.

Glroy and Terror: Seven Deaths under the French Revolution by Antoine de Baecque

A professor of history at the University of Saint Quentin in Yvelynes, France, de Baecque brings to this study a keen understanding of the "theatre" of revolution. His thesis is that at key points in the French Revolution, the deaths or burials of several leading personalities were celebrated, commemorated, or treated in such a way as to lend meaning and symbolism to the prevailing mindset and temper of the Revolution at that time. Hence, the death of Mirabeau in 1791 seemed to symbolize the death of the first (moderate) stage of the Revolution. Similarly, the elaborate 1791 ceremonies surrounding the transfer of Voltaire's remains to Paris could be viewed as a sign of the "collective regeneration of the French people." De Baecque also aims to have readers comprehend the symbolism behind the vicious and barbaric assaults on the corpse of the Princess de Lambelle, or the treatment accorded the body of the dead King Louis XVI. Remaining "corpses" discussed include Geffroy, Robespierre, and Madame Necker. De Baecque also recounts the varying ways in which those of differing political persuasions came to remember and memorialize these deaths over time. A fascinating work for serious students of the French Revolution; recommended for academic libraries.

>>1995180
pic definitely related... I'm too lazy to go check the source but 99% sure it was listed as being Burke worshipping his 'goddess.'

The worship of Marie Antoinette (or the French royalty) is one of my main peeves when it comes to certain books about the revolution. Have sympathy, yes, understand their POV, yes, but it's poor history to basically villify the revolution at the expense of propping up the royalty. Especially if the topic isn't published about frequently -- the only biography of Madame Elisabeth I could find was, once the revolution started, basically a slur against the revolution and the entire time I read, all I could think was "can I please read about her life without having to hear how eeevil *insert any aspect of the revolution here* is?"

Here's a book on Robespierre. Shame about the crippling paranoia and the mass killing, he was such a nice guy,

The Family Romance of the French Revolution by Lynn Hunt

This latest work from an author known for her contributions to the new cultural history is a daring, multidisciplinary investigation of the imaginative foundations of modern politics. Hunt uses the term 'Family Romance', (coined by Freud to describe the fantasy of being freed from one's family and belonging to one of higher social standing), in a broader sense, to describe the images of the familial order that structured the collective political unconscious. In a wide-ranging account that uses novels, engravings, paintings, speeches, newspaper editorials, pornographic writing, and revolutionary legislation about the family, Hunt shows that the politics of the French Revolution were experienced through the network of the family romance.

>>1995039
>From a political theory perspective

Learn French. Read Joseph de Maistre.

The Unseen Terror: The French Revolution in the Provinces by Richard Ballard

Paris was only one setting for a national terror which was frequently and painfully felt outside the capital. What happened during these momentous years beyond Paris? How did the revolution spread from the capital and how did it affect people living in the provinces?Drawing on newly discovered and unpublished sources which cast fresh light on the lives of everyday men and women caught up in the revolutionary ferment, ‘The Unseen Terror’ vividly portrays the impact of revolution in the French provinces. Focusing on the Charente-Maritime department on the west coast, Richard Ballard explores the course of the Revolution outside the palaces and prisons of the capital, reclaiming the pivotal but long-neglected stories of revolutionary and counter-revolutionary tensions in the French countryside.

Rethinking the French Revolution: Marxism and the Revisionist Challenge by George C. Comninel

Since the early 1960s, the historical interpretation of the French revolution has been undergoing protracted revision by historians. The newest interpretations reject the Marxist view that French society was so polarized by class that the revolution was the only inevitable outcome.

Twelve Who Ruled: The Year of the Terror in the French Revolution by Robert Palmer

In its fifth year (1793-1794), the French Revolution faced a multifaceted crisis that threatened to overwhelm the Republic. In response the government instituted a revolutionary dictatorship and a "reign of terror," with a Committee of Public Safety at its head. R. R. Palmer's fascinating narrative follows the Committee's deputies individually and collectively, recounting and assessing their tumultuous struggles in Paris and their repressive missions in the provinces.

>>1995207
Ugh that's so annoying, at least try to have some pretense of objectivity and understanding.

>>1995212
I guess I should although he does seem... uh... kind of insanely conservative reading about him on wiki? but I'm sure there's tons of French political thinking that came out of the Revolution that I should read more of - Condorcet etc. Also should have mentioned Sieyes and "What is the Third Estate" (also I love the story that Chamfort came up with that incredible opening and then was like 'fuck it, Sieyes can write the rest of this, even he can't fuck this one up').

Threshold of Terror: The Last Hours of Monarchy in the French Revolution by Rodney Allen

The French Revolution of 1789 did not set out to end the French monarchy. It aimed to create liberal constitutional government, with the king continuing to be responsible for national administration. This objective was believed to have been attained by the establishment of the Constitution of September 1791. However, radicals were not satisfied and France's declaration of war against Austria in April 1792 enhanced fears of counter-revolution led by aristocratic emigre forces based in Coblenz. Although the king tried to distance himself from the aristocratic faction, radical politicians agitated increasingly against the monarchy. On the fatal day of the 10 August 1792, Louis XVI was abandoned by the constitutionalists, and only the Swiss Guards, reacting autonomously to an impossible situation, made a real effort to protect him. The high drama of the crucial twenty-four hours in Paris from the afternoon of 9 August offers the unity of time and place of classical tragedy. Rodney Allen describes in a detail never attempted before what happened, through a careful analysis of eyewitness accounts, official minutes of institutions, and journalist reports. This heart-rending story of human and political tragedy should be required reading for anyone gripped by the drama of the French Revolution and wishing to learn more about one of the key turning points in European history.

The French Revolution by Alistair Horne

Some say the French Revolution was a catastrophe waiting to happen. Certainly there were signs that it would. This book looks at the signals of its arrival, the mishandling of the situation by Louis XVI and the subsequent events that took place from the storming of the Bastille onwards, through the horrific events of the "Terror," the reign of Robespierre, the political machinations and in-fighting and the advent of Napoleon who set a new order in motion and gave France some of its most fascinating moments, before crowning himself Emperor.

Dipping into Napoleon but my friend highly recommended this to me.

Napoleon Bonaparte and the Legacy of the French Revolution by Martyn Lyons

The Napoleonic period cannot be interpreted as a single historical 'block'. Bonaparte had many different persona: the Jacobin, the Republican, the reformer of the Consulate, the consolidator of the Empire and the 'liberal' of the Hundred Days. The emphasis here will be on Napoleon as the heir and executor of the French Revolution, rather than on his role as the liquidator of revolutionary ideals. Napoleon will be seen as part of the Revolution, preserving its social gains, and consecrating the triumph of the bourgeoisie. The book will steer away from the personal and heroic interpretation of the period. Instead of seeing the era in terms of a single man, the study will explore developments in French society and the economy, giving due weight to recent research on the demographic and social history of the period 1800-1815.

Citizens & Cannibals: The French Revolution, the Struggle of Modernity, and the Origins of Ideological Terror by Eli Sagan

Sagan conceives of three separate French Revolutions. The first, in 1789, established a constitutional monarchy similar to England's. The second, in 1792, saw King Louis XVI beheaded and introduced a republican form of government. The third, in 1793, involved the violent elimination of the Girondin faction and the beginning of the Jacobin dictatorship. Sagan seeks to explain how what started in the name Enlightenment ideals like liberty and equality ended in "ideological terror" and Napoleonic dictatorship, offering both cultural and psychological reasons for the Revolution's failure. France was unable to develop the concept of "loyal opposition" essential to viable democracy. In an increasingly paranoid political climate, political differences were seen as betrayals. Demands for ideological consensus led to constant governmental instability, and allowed for rampant guillotine use. Napoleon's "conservative dictatorship was finally resorted to in the search for some form of social stability," says Sagan. His exhaustive psychoanalysis of the Revolution and its leaders (especially Robespierre) provides remarkable insights into a warped, bloodthirsty political culture. At times, though, his argument reads like a textbook in psychology, as in his chapter on the "borderline conditions... operating in the pathological places of French culture." General readers will struggle, as Sagan assumes his audience has some grounding in French history and Freudian theory. His thought-provoking though often frustrating account is recommended for serious students of the French Revolution.

Last Letters: Prisons and Prisoners of the French Revolution by Olivier Blanc

Among the thousands of "counterrevolutionaries" condemned to death by the French Revolutionary Tribunal were wives of emigres, people who had innocently corresponded with "persons abroad," speculators, civil servants who leaned toward the old order and citizens trying to prevent their family heritage from being obliterated. These "suspects" were branded enemies of the state and thrown into makeshift prisons during the Reign of Terror. This extraordinary volume contains 150 letters written by imprisoned women and men just hours, even minutes, before being executed. Some accept their fate philosophically, others are more defiant; many reiterate their innocence. Most of the letters are filled with love and sadness. These moving farewell notes speak to us directly across the centuries. Using police reports and prisoners' memoirs, French historian Blanc recreates the perverse conditions in the prisonsconverted schools, lunatic asylums, housesand shows how the authorities used false reports of prison riots as a pretext for mass executions.

To Speak for the People: Public Opinion and the Problem of Legitimacy in the French Revolution by Jon Cowans

. Historian Jon Cowans adds a strong and genuinely original voice to the historical debate over the problem of legitimacy during the Revolution drawing on the works of such luminaries as Jürgen Habermas, Keith Baker, François Furet, and Nancy Fraser. He then examines the uses of terms such as "public opinion," 'the public," and "the people" in political debates during the Revolution and analyzes those terms' changing meaning and the role they played in attempts to secure political authority. While shedding new light on the Revolution itself, the book raises broader issues by addressing the problem of legitimacy that has haunted all revolutionary and democratic governments throughout the modern period

A Colony of Citizens: Revolution & Slave Emancipation in the French Caribbean, 1787 - 1804 by Laurent Dubois

Dubois examines this Caribbean revolution by focusing on Guadeloupe, where, in the early 1790s, insurgents on the island fought for equality and freedom and formed alliances with besieged Republicans. In 1794, slavery was abolished throughout the French Empire, ushering in a new colonial order in which all people, regardless of race, were entitled to the same rights.

But French administrators on the island combined emancipation with new forms of coercion and racial exclusion, even as newly freed slaves struggled for a fuller freedom. In 1802, the experiment in emancipation was reversed and slavery was brutally reestablished, though rebels in Saint-Domingue avoided the same fate by defeating the French and creating an independent Haiti.

The French Revolution Sourcebook by John Hardman

This selection of original documents in English translation examines the constitutional and political problems of France in the decade 1785-1795 through the writings of contemporaries. This text gives a full picture of the pre-Revolutionary period, the Constituent Assembly, and the Terror and provides an extraordinarily vivid guide to this key historical period.

Deaths of Louis XVI: Regicide and the French Political Imagination by Susan Dunn

The public beheading of Louis XVI was a unique and troubling event that scarred French collective memory for two centuries. To Jacobins, the king's decapitation was the people's coronation. To royalists, it was deicide. Nineteenth-century historians considered it an alarming miscalculation, a symbol of the Terror and the moral bankruptcy of the Revolution. By the twentieth century, Camus judged that the killing stood at the "crux of our contemporary history." In this book, Susan Dunn investigates the regicide's pivotal role in French intellectual history and political mythology. She examines how thinkers on the right and left repudiated regicide and terror, while articulating a compassionate, humanitarian vision, which became the moral basis for the modern French nation.

Paris in the Revolution: A Collection of eye-witness accounts by Reay Tannahill (editor)

A short collection of firsthand accounts of life in Paris during the French Revolution.

Revolutionary News: The Press in France, 1789 - 1799 by Jeremy D Popkin

The newspaper press was an essential aspect of the political culture of the French Revolution. Revolutionary News highlights the most significant features of this press in clear and vivid language. It breaks new ground in examining not only the famous journalists but the obscure publishers and the anonymous readers of the Revolutionary newspapers. Popkin examines the way press reporting affected Revolutionary crises and the way in which radical journalists like Marat and the Pere Duchene used their papers to promote democracy.

The Furies: Violence and Terror in the French and Russian Revolutions by Arno J. Mayer

rno J. Mayer revisits the two most tumultuous and influential revolutions of modern times: the French Revolution of 1789 and the Russian Revolution of 1917.

Although these two upheavals arose in different environments, they followed similar courses. The thought and language of Enlightenment France were the glories of western civilization; those of tsarist Russia's intelligentsia were on its margins. Both revolutions began as revolts vowed to fight unreason, injustice, and inequality; both swept away old regimes and defied established religions in societies that were 85% peasant and illiterate; both entailed the terrifying return of repressed vengeance. Contrary to prevalent belief, Mayer argues, ideologies and personalities did not control events. Rather, the tide of violence overwhelmed the political actors who assumed power and were rudderless. Even the best plans could not stem the chaos that at once benefited and swallowed them. Mayer argues that we have ignored an essential part of all revolutions: the resistances to revolution, both domestic and foreign, which help fuel the spiral of terror.

I wish there were more books discussing aspects of the White Terror...

Murder in Aubagne: Lynching, Law, and Justice during the French Revolution by D.M.G. Sutherland

This is a study of faction, lynching, murder, terror and counter-terror during the French Revolution. It examines factionalism in small towns like Aubagne near Marseille, and how this produced the murders and prison massacres of 1795-8. Another major theme is the convergence of lynching from below with official Terror from above. Although the Terror may have been designed to solve a national emergency in the spring of 1793, in southern France it permitted one faction to continue a struggle against its enemies, a struggle that had begun earlier over local issues like taxation and governance. It uses the techniques of micro-history to tell the story of the small town of Aubagne. It then extends the scope to places nearby like Marseille, Arles, and Aix-en-Provence. Along the way, it illuminates familiar topics like the activity of Clubs and revolutionary tribunals and then explores largely unexamined areas like lynching, the sociology of faction, the emergence of theories of violent fraternal democracy, and the nature of the White Terror.

Should we archive this?

Or do we still do that kind of thing?

One more before I head to bed. If the thread is here tomorrow I can continue with more NF and get into some nice fiction recs as well.

The Voices of the French Revolution by Richard Cobb

This irresistible history of the French Revolution is much more than a colorful mosaic. By splicing a reflective narrative with graphics (engravings, satirical cartoons, photographs) and primary documents - such as letters, trial transcripts, memoirs, decrees, newspaper editorials - it brings vivid immediacy to tumultuous events without sacrificing objective distance. The main narrative consists of dozens of tableaux, allowing room for such topics as prison conditions, Freemasonry, feudalism, the market for luxury goods. Along with the expected profiles of Marie-Antoinette, Louis XVI, Robespierre and Marat, we meet scheming pretender Philippe of Orleans who tried to bring down the king, professional revolutionary Tom Paine imprisoned under the Terror, and unstable leftist Joseph Fouche who led a campaign of de-Christianization and later became Napoleon's police minister.

>>1995816

I really loved this thread. A thousand internets to you, OP.

>get into some nice fiction recs as well.

You better have Hillary Mantel on there..... A Place of Greater Safety = Best French Revolution novel ever.

A Concise History of the French Revolution by Sylvia Neely

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. Written with clarity and nuance, this work will be an engaging and rewarding exploration for all readers interested in France and revolutionary history.

>>1996901
Btw, out of all the "concise," "short," "introduction" French Revolution books I would recommend this one. It can be a bit dry at times but it actually presents a general history of the major events and people instead of rambling about certain topics... though it is a "revisionist" theory book, in that the author presents that the revolution could not be nobility vs the other classes because classes were not necessarily static and many nobles had lives identical to 'commoners' and many commoners had lives identical (for the most part) to nobles.

OP! i was the one who asked for this! You rock.

>>1996964
Glad you're liking it!

Vive la Revolution by Mark Steel

Vive la Revolution is an uproariously serious work of history. Brilliantly funny and insightful, it puts individual people back at the center of the story of the French Revolution, telling this remarkable story as it has never been told before.

Victor Hugo wrote an historical novel about The Terror, titled "Ninety-Three" (the year 1793), mixing historical and fictional characters.

Be sure to be an Hugo-enthusiast before reading it!

>>1997049
Do you have any recommendations for which translation to read? I've read reviews and many seem to hate the book based on poor translations...

Fleet Battle and Blockade: The French Revolutionary War 1793 - 1797 by Robert Gardiner

Forgetting the set backs of the American Revolutionary War, in 1793 the Royal Navy embarked on an almost unprecedented era of victories at sea, producing a considerable appetite for pictures of every incident, great or small. A thriving trade in prints and engravings grew up, supplemented by watercolors and oils by celebrated artists. Besides these ‘public’ works, many officers—and indeed members of the lower deck—kept personal journals and sketchbooks, illustrated with surprisingly accomplished drawings and watercolors, often depicting the everyday aspects of wartime life at sea that were ignored in the more celebratory artistic media. These sources form a rich vein that have been barely touched in previous publications, but which this book uses to full effect.

>>1997049
Sorry, I'm french so I don't know about translations!

Also, I recommend "Les Chouans", by Balzac, which also takes place in The Terror.
This novel is about the civil war between the revolution army and counter-revolutionist royalists (nicknamed "chouans").
It involves battles, spies and romance!
Despite the romance part being fantasy, it remains quite accurate.
Also easier to read than Hugo, but has much less historical content.

Thee Revolution Series by Alexandre Dumas

Told in a span of sixth books, classic novelist Alexandre Dumas recounts the revolution through fictional and historical characters.

Recommended reading order:

Joseph Balsamo
Memoirs of a Physician (Sometimes this is 2 volumes)
The Queen's Necklace
Taking the Bastille
The Countess de Charny
The Chevalier/Knight of the Maison-Rouge

Note: Many of these books have been published under several different names, though the ones I've listed are the most common. Avoid later translations and definitely avoid most of the free downloads on Amazon of these books. The most highly recommended translation is the PF Collier and Sons translations from the 1900s which are (that I've found) the most complete and well translated versions of the books. however, Memoirs of a Physician is usually published missing 30 chapters (even with PF Collier) except for the translation by J.M. Dent published by Little Brown.

Sans-Culottes: An Eighteenth-Century Emblem in the French Revolution by micheal Sonenscher

This is a bold new history of the sans-culottes and the part they played in the French Revolution. It tells for the first time the real story of the name now usually associated with urban violence and popular politics during the revolutionary period. By doing so, it also shows how the politics and economics of the revolution can be combined to form a genuinely historical narrative of its content and course. To explain how an early eighteenth-century salon society joke about breeches and urbanity was transformed into a republican emblem, Sans-Culottes examines contemporary debates about Ciceronian, Cynic, and Cartesian moral philosophy, as well as subjects ranging from music and the origins of government to property and the nature of the human soul. By piecing together this now forgotten story, Michael Sonenscher opens up new perspectives on the Enlightenment, eighteenth-century moral and political philosophy, the thought of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and the political history of the French Revolution itself.

This is a VERY long novel, but very entertaining, intelligent and informative.

It follows the private lives of Desmoulins, Robespierre and Danton as the Revolution makes and then breaks each of them.

>>1997248
A Place of Greater Safety is the one of the best (if not THE best) French Revolution novel, IMO. I was sad when it was over.

Music and the French Revolution by Malcolm Boyd

Hymns, chansons and even articles of the Constitution set to music in the form of vaudevilles all played their part in disseminating Revolutionary ideas and principles; music education was reorganised to compensate for the loss of courtly institutions and the weakened maitrises of cathedrals and churches. Opera, in particular, was profoundly affected, in both its organisation and its subject matter, by the events of 1789 and the succeeding decade. The essays in this book, written by specialists in the period, deal with all these aspects of music in Revolutionary France, highlighting the composers and writers who played a major role in the changes that took place there. They also identify some of the traditions and genres that survived the Revolution, and look at the effects on music of Napoleon's invasion of Italy.

>>1997274
>>1997248

Thank you. I said this last night! See

>>1995841

about the Bourbon Restoration & July Monarchy but hey, they're underwritten topics

Re-Writing the French Revolutionary Tradition: Liberal Opposition and the Fall of the Bourbon Monarchy by Robert S. Alexander

Examining the politics of the French Revolutionary tradition during the nineteenth century Bourbon Restoration and early July Monarchy, Robert Alexander argues that political struggle was not confined to the elite. The Restoration Liberal Opposition developed a reform tradition based on legal organization and persuasion, which would prove far more effective in achieving progressive change than the revolutionary tradition of conspiracy and insurrection. Alexander analyzes relations among the Liberal Opposition, ultra-royalists and the state to support his claims.

>>1997274
>I was sad when it was over
That was my only complaint- I wanted to see Robespierre's downfall.

Hilary Mantel spent years on the book, and then couldn't get anyone to publish it. It only came out later, after she became well-known & successful.

Never give up!

Was going to start posting some fiction but GoodReads is not being kind to me atm... more NF, it is!

Dancing to the Precipice: Lucie de la Tour du Pin and the French Revolution by Caroline Moorehead

Educated to wait on Marie Antoinette, the marquise Lucie de la Tour du Pin (1770-1853) instead precariously survived a devastating revolution, an emperor, two restorations and a republic. Drawing on Lucie's memoirs and those of her contemporaries, Moorehead (Gellhorn) uses Lucie's descriptions of both personal events and the ever-changing French political atmosphere to portray the nobility's awkward shifts with each new event and the impact they have on Lucie and her diplomat husband, Fréédric. A woman with both court-honed aristocratic manners and rough farm skills (earned in the Revolution's wake during her rural New York exile), Lucie benefited from passing platonic relationships with Napoleon and Wellington, Talleyrand, and countless salon personalities. Lucie's terror during the anarchy of the Revolution remains palpable in her memoirs centuries later. Moorehead obviously admires Lucie, but she gives a convincing and entertaining portrait of an intelligent, shrewd, unpretentious woman and the turbulent times she lived through and testified to in her memoirs.

Fatal Purity: Robespierre and the French Revolution by Ruth Scurr

Since his execution by guillotine in July 1794, Maximilien Robespierre has been contested terrain for historians. Was he a bloodthirsty charlatan or the only true defender of revolutionary ideals? The first modern dictator or the earliest democrat? Was his extreme moralism a heroic virtue or a ruinous flaw?
Against the dramatic backdrop of the French Revolution, historian Ruth Scurr tracks Robespierre’s evolution from provincial lawyer to devastatingly efficient revolutionary leader, righteous and paranoid in equal measure. She explores his reformist zeal, his role in the fall of the monarchy, his passionate attempts to design a modern republic, even his extraordinary effort to found a perfect religion. And she follows him into the Terror, as the former death- penalty opponent makes summary execution the order of the day, himself falling victim to the violence at the age of thirty-six.

YA-grade and somewhat stereotypical but it's fun for an afternoon.

The Red Necklace by Sally Gardner

A mysterious gypsy boy, Yann Margoza, and his guardian, a dwarf, work for the magician Topolain in 1789. On the night of Topolain's death, Yann's life truly begins. That's when he meets Sido, an heiress with a horrible father. An attachment is born that will determine both their paths. Revolution is afoot in France, and Sido is being used as a pawn. Only Yann will dare to rescue her from a fearful villain named Count Kalliovski. It will take all of Yann's newly discovered talent to unravel the mysteries of Sido's past and his own and to fight the devilish count.

Elizabeth Vigee-Lebrun: The Odyssey of an Artist in the Age of Revolution by Gita May

Vigee Le Brun became a famous portraitist while still in her twenties, and was a favorite of Marie-Antoinette. May's biography seeks to rescue her from critics who have dismissed her as an operator and a superficial talent. Born in 1755, Vigee Le Brun lived until the eighteen-forties and produced two volumes of memoirs, which form the backbone of this account. Occasionally, one feels the lack of broader perspectives, and May, a literature professor, fails to give a detailed sense of either the historical context or the aesthetic content of her subject's works. Still, she effectively conveys that, for Vigee Le Brun, matters such as politics, friendship, and love were subordinate to an absolute focus on honing her skill. Even post-Revolution exile was turned to advantage; she traversed Europe looking at masterpieces and painting such subjects as Byron and the family of Catherine the Great.

This thread is fabulous and I love whoever's Makin It Happen

Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly

BROOKLYN: Andi Alpers is on the edge. She’s angry at her father for leaving, angry at her mother for not being able to cope, and heartbroken by the loss of her younger brother, Truman. Rage and grief are destroying her. And she’s about to be expelled from Brooklyn Heights’ most prestigious private school when her father intervenes. Now Andi must accompany him to Paris for winter break.

PARIS: Alexandrine Paradis lived over two centuries ago. She dreamed of making her mark on the Paris stage, but a fateful encounter with a doomed prince of France cast her in a tragic role she didn’t want—and couldn’t escape.

Two girls, two centuries apart. One never knowing the other. But when Andi finds Alexandrine’s diary, she recognizes something in her words and is moved to the point of obsession. There’s comfort and distraction for Andi in the journal’s antique pages—until, on a midnight journey through the catacombs of Paris, Alexandrine’s words transcend paper and time, and the past becomes suddenly, terrifyingly present.

A Place of Greater Safety: A Novel by Hilary Mantel

It is 1789, and three young provincials have come to Paris to make their way. Georges-Jacques Danton, an ambitious young lawyer, is energetic, pragmatic, debt-ridden--and hugely but erotically ugly. Maximilien Robespierre, also a lawyer, is slight, diligent, and terrified of violence. His dearest friend, Camille Desmoulins, is a conspirator and pamphleteer of genius. A charming gadfly, erratic and untrustworthy, bisexual and beautiful, Camille is obsessed by one woman and engaged to marry another, her daughter. In the swells of revolution, they each taste the addictive delights of power, and the price that must be paid for it.

The Sanson Family of Executioners: The Role of the Executioner during the French Revolution of 1789 by David Kubilus

To the casual observer, the executioner is viewed with little sympathy. He ruthlessly discharges his duties upon those found guilty by the court or King without feeling or emotion. In researching the life of the Sanson family of executioners, however, Kubilus discovered a very different story. From Charles the elder in 1662, who began his career as a headsman as the result of an ill-fated love affair, to Henri-Clement, who lost his position due in part to his lavish lifestyle, the Sanson's carried out their macabre duties. None claimed to enjoy their work, and by reading the diaries of Charles-Henri, the distaste with which he regarded his daily tasks during the Revolution is painfully clear. This study will examine how the position of the executioner, handed down from father to son, affected each of the Sanson's and their families.

City of Darkness, City of Light by Marge Piercy

In her most splendid, thought-provoking novel yet, Marge Piercy brings to vibrant life three women who play prominent roles in the tumultuous, bloody French Revolution--as well as their more famous male counterparts.

Defiantly independent Claire Lacombe tests her theory: if men can make things happen, perhaps women can too. . . . Manon Philipon finds she has a talent for politics--albeit as the ghostwriter of her husband's speeches. . . . And Pauline Léon knows one thing for certain: the women must apply the pressure or their male colleagues will let them starve. While illuminating the lives of Robespierre, Danton, and Condorcet, Piercy also opens to us the minds and hearts of women who change their world, live their ideals--and are prepared to die for them.

Lafayette by Harlow Giles unger

Appearing at a time when there is a new wave of interest in America's Founding Fathers, this well-written and well-researched biography should appeal to traditional political historians and informed lay readers alike. The author, a journalist and biographer, makes no secret of his great admiration for Lafayette, whom he presents as a "gallant knight" and true believer in American republican and constitutional ideals. Critical of historiographical interpretations that have painted Lafayette in either a romanticized or a cynical way, Unger aims to recount objectively the Frenchman's contributions to the great events of his age the American War of Independence and the French Revolutions of 1789 and 1830. The first biography of Lafayette to appear in almost 20 years, this text is noteworthy for the attention it gives to Lafayette's personal friendship with George Washington and for its careful reconstruction of the role Lafayette played in diplomatic and economic issues of importance to the fledgling American nation. Unger implies that Lafayette's "distaste for political leadership" and his consistent rejection of both political and military power may have played a role in allowing "madmen and fanatics" like Robespierre to rise to power. Although his biases against the French radical republicans are clear, Unger has succeeded in his goal of restoring Lafayette to his rightful place in Western political history

Dammit, OP, why do you keep posting in this thread? now there are so many more fascinating books I need to read. shit.

Seriously though this is outstanding, thanks so much

>>1997932
I can't help it! I'm still not even done with my first round of recs... there's more that I haven't read or heard first-hand were good but seem interesting anyway. And then there's primary sources! And "this book is probably terrible but read it for the laugh" books.

Envoy to the Terror: Gouverneur Morris and the French Revolution by Melanie Randolph Miller

The story of Gouverneur Morris, the brilliant and unconventional Founding Father from New York, is a forgotten jewel in the crown of early American national history. Although he was an important contributor to our Constitution, Morris has generally received little respect or attention from historians. The reason for this long indifference lies primarily in the most powerful but misunderstood episode of Morris's life: his experience as American minister to France during the height of the French Revolution. Envoy to the Terror is the first in-depth study of Morris's time in France, and it discredits many long-standing myths about his performance as a diplomat.

>>1998116
Gouverneur Morris' book cover, you get back there

The Scarlet Pimpernel by Emmuska Orczy

Thrilling escapades of the disguised English aristocrat Sir Percy Blakeney are featured in a popular tale of intrigue and adventure. In 1792, during the French Revolution's Reign of Terror, an English aristocrat known to be an ineffectual fop is actually a master of disguises who, with a small band of dedicated friends, undertakes dangerous missions to save members of the French nobility from the guillotine

I also recommend the rest of the Pimpernel series:

http://www.blakeneymanor.com/series.html

I've only read - aside from The Scarlet Pimpernel - A Child of the Revolution and Mam'zelle Guillotine, but I enjoyed both pretty well.

> there are no footnotes citing sources. Despite this flaw, Schama's book will please scholars
>Schama's book will please scholars
>Schama…scholar

please.

A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

Liberty, equality, fraternity, or death; -- the last, much the easiest to bestow, O Guillotine!'

After eighteen years as a political prisoner in the Bastille, the ageing Doctor Manette is finally released and reunited with his daughter in England. There the lives of two very different men, Charles Darnay, an exiled French aristocrat, and Sydney Carton, a disreputable but brilliant English lawyer, become enmeshed through their love for Lucie Manette. From the tranquil roads of London, they are drawn against their will to the vengeful, bloodstained streets of Paris at the height of the Reign of Terror, and they soon fall under the lethal shadow of La Guillotine.

Scaramouche by Rafael Sabatini

When Andre-Louis witnesses the murder of his best friend by an arrogant aristocrat he swears to avenge his death. Forced to flee his hometown after stirring up revolutionary fervour in the citizens, he falls in with a travelling theatre company and disguises himself as the character of the wily rogue Scaramouche. His ensuing adventures involve hair-raising duels, romance, treachery and shocking family secrets.

Another book where translations need to be carefully chosen...

The Gods Will Have Blood (or "The Gods Are Athirst") by Anatole France

Published in 1912, when Anatole France was sixty-eight, The Gods Will Have Blood is the story of Gamelin, an idealistic young artist appointed as a magistrate during the French Revolution. Gamelin's ideals lead him to the most monstrous mass murder of his countrymen, and the links between Gamelin and his family, his mistress and the humanist Brotteaux are catastrophically severed. This book recreates the violence and devastation of the Terror with breathtaking power, and weaves into it a tale which grips, convinces and profoundly moves. The perfection of Anatole France's prose style, with its myriad subtle ironies, is here translated by Frederick Davies with admirable skill and sensitivity. That The Gods Will Have Blood is Anatole France's masterpiece is beyond doubt. It is also one of the most brilliantly polished novels in French literature.

Loss of Innocence: A Novel of the French Revolution

In spite of her noble heritage, French countess Eugenie Devereau avidly embraces the stirrings of social change and revolution in France. Life at her tranquil chateau will never be the same. Fast-paced events, the monarchy under seige, and her on-going romance with American shipper Bridger Goodrich shatter the peace of her Bordeaux countryside. She must take action. Persuaded that the royal family is in imminent danger, Eugenie joins a historically documented coalition of Americans and Frenchmen bent on saving Marie Antoinette and the French monarchy. Will she carry out the plan in time? In her exciting new novel, Walther explores a little-known even of history, while she tells a vivid story of courage, danger, and love.

>>1998215
Well, ignoring that the text wasn't saying Schama was a scholar... even if it was, it didn't say he was a -good- scholar.

Then again, it's really only in post 1990 books that I've seen decent footnoting in the history books I've read. My favorite is when authors footnote their own books, though. FACTS.

Despite Madame Tussaud's stories of being forced to make death masks and being buddy buddy with the royals is as historically sound as "Napoleon was really short!" it's a good read.

Madame Tussaud: A Novel of the French Revolution by Michelle Moran

In this deft historical novel, Madame Tussaud (1761-1850) escapes the pages of trivia quizzes to become a real person far more arresting than even her waxwork sculptures. Who among us knew, for instance, that she moved freely through the royal court of Louis XVI, only to become a prisoner of the Reign of Terror? Her head was shaven for guillotining, but she escaped execution, though she was forced to make death masks for prominent victims. Novelist Michelle Moran covers this breathtaking period without losing the thread of its subject's singular story.

bump

Annette Vallon: A Novel of the French Revolution by James Tipton

Set amid the terror and excitement of the French Revolution, James Tipton's evocative novel is the story of a woman who has for too long been relegated to the shadows of history: Annette Vallon, William Wordsworth's mistress and muse.

Born into a world of wealth and pleasure, Annette enjoys the privileges of aristocracy, but a burning curiosity and headstrong independence set her apart. Spoiled by the novels of Rousseau, she refuses to be married unless it is for passion. Yet the love she finds with a young English poet will test Annette in unexpected ways, bringing great joy and danger in a time of terror and death.

bump

The play which most people take quotes from and attribute them to the real Marat... tsk tsk.

The Persecution and Assassination of Jean-Paul Marat as SPerformed by the Inmates of the Aslyum of Charenton Under the Direction of the Marquis de Sade by Peter Weiss

This extraordinary play, which swept Europe before coming to America, is based on two historical truths: the infamous Marquis de Sade was confined in the lunatic asylum of Charenton, where he staged plays; and the revolutionary Jean-Paul Marat was stabbed in a bathtub by Charlotte Corday at the height of the Terror during the French Revolution. But this play-within-a-play is not historical drama. Its thought is as modern as today's police states and The Bomb; its theatrical impact has everywhere been called a major innovation. It is total theatre: philosophically problematic, visually terrifying. It engages the eye, the ear, and the mind with every imaginable dramatic device, technique, and stage picture, even including song and dance. All the forces and elements possible to the stage are fused in one overwhelming experience. This is theatre such as has rarely been seen before. The play is basically concerned with the problem of revolution. Are the same things true for the masses and for their leaders? And where, in modern times, lie the borderlines of sanity?

http://chanarchive.org/request_votes
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>>1999485
this thread has received 3 of 4 requests needed to trigger archival.

http://www.amazon.com/French-Revolution-Revolutions-Modern-World/dp/039395997X/

JF Bosher, "The French Revolution"

Basically: "How the Bourbons fucked it up by liberalizing."

>>1999514
i don't remember who it was, but i do find the observation interesting that revolutions frequently occur in regimes that are more liberal than the one which preceded them.

for fans of "Scholastic" diaries

The Fall of the Blade: A Girl's French Revolution Diary 1792-1794 by Sue Reid

It's 1792. Isabelle, daughter of an aristocrat, lives in a chateau just outside Paris. But France is in the grip of the Revolution, and as terror takes hold of the city, Isabelle's family decides that they must flee to the countryside. But will they be safe there? Will they escape the guillotine's falling blade...?

>>1999519
It is interesting. It's not to say revolutions can't happen in oppressive regimes, but regarding the French Revolution, I can't imagine Louis XV "putting up" with any of the uprisings. He seemed more likely to just have the people shot or imprisoned or done away with rather than try to compromise a solution for all sides.

Mistress of the Revolution by Catherine Delors

Set in opulent, decadent, turbulent revolutionary France, Mistress of the Revolution is the story of Gabrielle de Montserrat. An impoverished noblewoman blessed with fiery red hair and a mischievous demeanor, Gabrielle is only fifteen when she meets her true love, a commoner named Pierre-André Coffinhal. But her brother forbids their union, choosing for her instead an aging, wealthy baron.

Widowed and a mother while still a teen, Gabrielle arrives at the court of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette in time to be swept up in the emerging cataclysm. As a new order rises, Gabrielle finds her own lovely neck on the chopping block—and who should be selected to sit on the Revolutionary Tribunal but her first love, Pierre-André. . . .

Denis Wheatley's Roger Brook series. He's so fucking unfashionable these days that no-one under 30 has probably even heard of Wheatley, but he used to be the Gun'nor of English historical fiction - Bernard Cornwell but with more Nazis and black magic. Invented a lot of the tropes Fleming would use to make James Fag so distinctive, but I digress.

The Roger Brook novels tell the story of the French Revolution from beginning to end, and they tell it bloody well with a bit of fighting and fucking thrown in. Wheatley was a wine dealer by trade, so he spent a lot of time in France, particularly rural France, and it's clear that he loved the place.

If you can get past the snobbishness and materialism, coupled with a bit of light racism, then it's pretty fucking good adventure book.

A Far Better Rest by Susanne Alleyn

A Tale of Two Cities is the story of Charles Darnay and Lucie Manette, but Sydney Carton is the hero who makes the ultimate sacrifice for love. Sydney disappears from the novel in London and turns up years later in Paris to bring the story to its heartbreaking end. A Far Better Rest imagines his missing personal history and makes him the center of this tragic tale.

(This book wasn't terrible but not great either... something to read if you're out of new reads, I suppose)

>>1999563
Sounds interesting! I haven't heard of it before.

(couldn't find the cover for her English books... ah well)

Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette Before the Revolution; Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette During the Revolution by Nesta Webster

A dual biography of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette that seeks to examine their behavior without Freudian or pro-revolutionary bias. Although Webster excels at examining (and shutting down) many popular myths regarding the pair, and presents readers with a fairer pictures of the royal couple's actions before and during the revolution, her theories about the Revolution itself border on conspiracy and should best be taken with a heaping bowl of salt. But don't throw the baby out with the bathwater- her portrayal of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette is an excellent response to the Freudian, Hollywood caricatures the public is often given. Readers without knowledge of French may be frustrated by occasional quotes left untranslated, and it's best to avoid modern reprints - look for the editions published in the late 1930s and 70s.

I sort of assumed that this had been mentioned, but I can't see it so...

Edmund Burke- Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790)

Massively influential- still a core text for the sceptical conservative.

A truly horrifying cover.

There Were Three of Us in the Relationship by Nancy Lotz

A collection of English translated letters between the Austrian Empress Maria Theresa, the newly made French dauphine Marie Antoinette, tand the Austrian Ambassador to France turned spy, Comte Mercy. Although Lotz's translations are somewhat simple and occasionally clunky, and there are few historical notes or explanations, the volume presents the most complete collection of letters written by Marie Antoinette and her mother currently available to English readers today.

(A great bio if you can look past Fraser's insistence on the Fersen affair without adequate evidence, and her occasional too-modern lens that skews the actions of an 18th century monarch)

Marie Antoinette: The Journey by Antonia Fraser
"The" biography credited as sparking renewed interest in Marie Antoinette as a woman. Was she a sexual predator, political meddler, wastrel, and traitor? Or was she a scapegoat for a corrupt and bankrupt nation, who went with superb dignity to the guillotine, the victim of a vindictive judicial murder? The tragic life of Marie Antoinette, rich in conflicting detail, remains a biographer's challenge, and Antonia Fraser's richly human yet evenhanded account is a reader's delight.

>>1999665

>There Were Three of Us in the Relationship

Whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa, back the fuck up there negro.

Are you seriously shitting me, or did the fucking "Queen of Hearts" (IQ: Room temperature) quote the letters of Marie Antoinette while trying to blow the lid on her shitty marriage. Then she got killed?

Fucking tinfoil helmet is going on, right fucking now. It's like she knew, man, like she fucking knew. All because she wasn't prepared to birth the moonchild and usher in armageddon. Truly, they will remember her as the people's princess. Like Zelda.

Here's a joke for you all:

>What do you get if you cross the Queen and Prince Philip?

>Murdered in a tunnel.

BOOM BOOM!

Thanks very much, you've been a lovely audience. I'm here all week, so tell your friends. Cheers, and god bless.

The Giant of the French Revolution: Danton, a Life by David Lawday

In the first biography of Danton in over forty years, David Lawday reveals the larger-than-life figure who joined the fray at the storming of the Bastille in 1789 and was dead five years later.

To hear Danton speak, his booming voice a roll of thunder, excited bourgeois reformers and the street alike; his impassioned speeches, often hours long, drove the sans culottes to action and kept the Revolution alive. But as the newly appointed Minister of Justice, Danton struggled to steer the increasingly divided Revolutionary government. Working tirelessly to halt the bloodshed of Robespierre’s Terror, he ultimately became another of its victims. True to form, Danton did not go easily to the guillotine; at his trial, he defended himself with such vehemence that the tribunal convicted him before he could rally the crowd in his favor.
In vivid, almost novelistic prose, Lawday leads us from Danton’s humble roots to the streets of Revolutionary Paris, where this political legend acted on the stage of the revolution that altered Western civilization.

>>1999677

>>1999677

>you've been a lovely audience

No, no we haven't.

Nice filename, btw.

Now fuck off.