the oxford history of the french revolution review

In this context of insecurity and upheaval, the second section concerns itself with ‘the coming of the Revolution’ and opens with a ‘view from above’. In 1774, similar crowds took identical measures against effigies of abbé Terray and chancellor Maupeou without this being taken as a threat to life. The question arises of how peaceable and fun mock executions, celebrated with fireworks and dancing, transformed into the gruesome spectacles Sutherland goes on to describe of real decapitation, dismemberment, hand-washing in blood, and so on, indeed ad nauseam. Is (virtuous) denunciation what one does to others, and (vicious) calumny what others do to you? The nervousness conveyed by Kaiser is reflected in John Hardman’s account of turmoil, dissent and downright confusion in attempts by the government to get to grips with the rapidly unfolding situation in the spring and summer of 1789, Hardman suggests that the Third Estate ‘always knew’ that they would gain the crucial doubling of their number in time for the Estates General in May 1789, ‘and so, deep down, did everyone else’ (p. 134). This book, from one of the leading revisionist historians of the French Revolution, has received high praise from a number of historians and newspapers, saying it’s the most authoritative and comprehensive history of the French Revolution. ‘And so are they are all, all honourable men’, as Mark Anthony lamented, bringing us back to Charles Walton’s earlier reflections on honour in a weak state which chime with Kaiser’s point about ‘national shame’ and with views Hamish Scott has conveyed elsewhere. At the same time, it told me things I never knew and very much do add to the overview. "The Oxford History of the French Revolution", by William Doyle is among the best books that I have read on the French Revolution. (1) We are presented here with a set of insightful contributions which skilfully describe events in the run-up to 1789 without falling into the tempting traps of teleology. There are 37 essays between these covers, by male and female historians from Britain, the United States, France, Australia, New Zealand, and the Netherlands, including stalwarts and newer arrivals to the field. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. … Since its first publication to mark the bicentenary of the French Revolution in 1989, this Oxford History has established itself as the Revolution's most authoritative and comprehensive one-volume history in English, and has recently been translated into Chinese. a clear and balanced picture of the origins of the Revolution. David Andress’s own contribution is a convincing plea to historians to think critically about the leadership of ‘popular’ movements, to question the figure of the sans-culotte and to be wary of where seeing ‘the people’ as an undifferentiated mass might lead them, historiographically speaking. Jeff Horn’s magisterial piece on ‘lasting economic structures’ may well be the essay that launches a thousand dissertations in a field for which he pleads for attention – and helpfully indicates many possible avenues of inquiry – that of the economic policies of 1789–99. Linton is perhaps the most forthright in stating the importance of emotion to our understanding of the period, yet it is clearly a significant factor running through many of the analyses presented here. Revolutionary Ideas: An Intellectual History of the French Revolution by IsraelThis is a large, detailed … Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 21, 2019. French conduct in that affair induced ‘a sense of national shame’ (p. 116) which further undermined already shaky confidence. There are many other points where Hardman and Alpaugh differ substantially in their interpretations. Bell in an essay on the conceptual legacies of the Revolution. This book, from one of the leading revisionist historians of the French Revolution, has received high praise from a number of historians and newspapers, saying it’s the most authoritative and comprehensive history of the French Revolution. In an effective conjuction, Brown’s essay sits alongside Jean-Luc Chappey’s on the fading ‘civilising mission’ of the ‘rational, sensible’ elites of the Directory whose growing sense of distance from ‘the people’ sanctioned an increasing resort to coercion in order to protect the power of the executive. William Doyle, Oxford History of the French Revolution (Oxford, 1989); a revised edition of Doyle’s book was published in 2003.Back to (2) D. G. M. Sutherland’s essay provides a fascinating description of the Parisian crowd, a weighted term in this context, punishing the effigy of wallpaper maker Réveillon before the eponymous riots took place. This is how I imagine all history books should be written. Reviews in History is part of the School of Advanced Study. Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for The Oxford History of the French Revolution by William Doyle (2003, UK-Trade Paper, Revised edition) at the best online prices at eBay! Doyle’s analysis throughout is razor sharp and his judgements on all the major events between 1789 and 1802 highly convincing. Be the first one to write a review. Since its first publication to mark the bicentenary of the French Revolution in 1989, this Oxford History has established itself as the Revolution's most authoritative and comprehensive one-volume history in English, and has recently been translated into Chinese. It helped me to get a better grasp of many of the important characters, without either demonizing or canonizing them. One hopes his inclusion in this volume will bring his findings to an ever wider audience. The text is a critical text based on the collation of the first edition of 1837 as copy-text against the Second Edition of 1839, the Third Edition of 1848, the Uniform Edition of 1857-58, and the Library Edition of 1869-71 The swirling mists of ancient Gaul appear quite crowded from this perspective. In his searching contribution, Joël Félix characterises the revolution as 'a process and a failure, a rupture and an achievement', a paradoxical yet accurate list which encompasses all the difficulty of attempting to produce a handbook to such an epoch. Stuffed with the reality of what it must have been like at that time, and it pulls together all the threads that lead to an upheaval that still resonates Today. Reviewed in the United States on December 1, 2019. Internally and externally, the French state in 1788 appeared weak and embattled, teetering on the brink of vague yet terrifying disaster. Burrows shows that ‘even in the highly illegal sector it seems that philosophie was always more popular than salacious tales’ (p. 83) and, importantly, that the 1780s did not witness a massive underground market for pornographic libelles against the queen. Hilaire Belloc, born in France of a French father and an English mother, does not tell the history of the French Revolution in this relatively brief book. Comprehensive but it's dense, difficult, and requires enormous background knowledge, Reviewed in the United States on July 11, 2019. In part three, under the rubric of ‘Revolution and constitution’, historians address subjects as diverse as the constitutional legacy of the National Assembly, elections and popular press, the politics of identity, religion, and urban violence in 1789. The collection maintains a very high standard throughout. Bell. The historiography of the French Revolution is a diverse and ever expanding field. Lamoignon de Malesherbes viewed the absence of a British attack in 1788 as impossible, given wide international knowledge of France’s financial and political distress (p. 118). I capitoli sono organizzati per argomento di interesse; all’interno di essi la cronologia è congruente ma una simile struttura per argomento comporta inevitabilmente delle asincronie: per esempio, il capitolo 7 "Europa e la Rivoluzione 1788-1791" è successivo al 6 "Il crollo del consenso rivoluzionario 1790-91"; il 13 "Controrivoluzione 1789-1795" è dopo l’ 11 "Governo col Terrore 1793-1794" e il 12 "Termidoro 1794". One is tempted to go back and re-read all that came before in this new light. I think it is very well written. These provide some real insight into the ancien régime, which complements well the work which appeared under the editorship of William Doyle in The Oxford Handbook of the Ancien Régime. Important essays by Simon Burrows and by Andress himself call for a reappraisal and reorientation of existing historiography, for a critical rethink and a new direction, while Kirsty Carpenter and Jeff Horn brings necessary attention to neglected aspects of this intensely studied period. The loose chronological basis of the part structure seems to come unstuck in places and the editorial intent behind it feels muddied. Since its first publication to mark the bicentenary of the French Revolution in 1989, this Oxford History has established itself as the Revolution's most authoritative and comprehensive one-volume history in English, and has recently been translated into Chinese. I am not a historian but I wanted an overview of the French Revolution to set my other reading in some sort of context. The mammoth task is reduced to more manageable proportions with sets of essays arranged in chronological sections, starting from ‘Origins’ and working through to ‘After Thermidor’, though these temporal titles serve more as guides than strictures. Eisenstein, Elizabeth L. "Who intervened in 1788? I never felt I got a real, satisfying portrait of the main players. This book, from one of the leading revisionist historians of the French Revolution, has received high praise from a number of historians and newspapers, saying it’s the most authoritative and comprehensive history of the French Revolution. He describes the shifting moral economy which links the rejection of the politics of the Terror with the outright dismissal of what had been successful economic policies, with immediate and ‘harrowing’ consequences for the French. The Dutch rebellion of 1787 is dealt with in the following essay on French foreign policy by Thomas E Kaiser. I hate to admit that before reading The Oxford History of the French Revolution I was in complete darkness regarding one of the most significant social and political events of modern European history. Overall, Kaiser’s essay asks whether France’s diplomatic and military policy in the 1770s and 1780s contributed anything other than severe fiscal distress to the fall of the old regime. LibraryThing Review User Review - jrissman - LibraryThing "The Oxford History of the French Revolution" by William Doyle is a detailed account of the events that transpired in France leading to the downfall of the monarch Louis XVI, up through the assumption ... Read full review S essay on the brink of vague yet terrifying disaster such punishment a... Review * this is the most comprehensive all-in-one history of the part structure seems to come unstuck in and... Completa ed aggiornata degli eventi della Rivoluzione Francese, condensata in un singolo volume di 427 fitte pagine French policy! 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