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David Andress is Principal Lecturer in Modern History at the University of Portsmouth.

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This is a very good book overall. 3.5 stars is a little harsh. It has flaws though. It starts in a difficult manner. It flies into immense detail straight away. This would be fine if the reader had enough knowledge, but when covering such a vast territory, then it is unlikely they would have the requisite context in their heads. The end, by contrast, is rushed and a little too scant, preventing the author from coming to a strong conclusion. Between those two points, however, is a very good book, weaving different histories, often treated as different narratives by lesser historians, together into one, and brilliantly showing the interconnections between them all. It could be contended that Atlantic history does this anyway, but this goes way beyond that, drawing specific attention to the interconnection between ideas and actions in different parts of the world, and highlighting the contradictions that often resulted. Certainly worth a read for the middle section.… (meer)
½
 
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JJPCIII | 2 andere besprekingen | Jul 23, 2023 |
Chapter 1 was depressingly modern sounding: the haves want to hang on to everything they've got, run the country on credit & avoid taxes except for the have-nots.
Gave up eventually ... the writing is like wading through thick mud.
 
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Siubhan | 2 andere besprekingen | Feb 28, 2018 |
Gripping, bloody, and full of details about the different factions who all fought for place in what became known as the Reign of Terror. It begins with the Royal Family's flight to Varennes and their arrest and return to Paris, and documents well their inability to grasp the full wrath of their people.

2021 Addition: After finishing this book, I am keeping the 3 stars. This book is incredibly well researched and the writing style leaves a lot to be desired. One of the areas that Andress does well is to document the vast numbers of people caught up in making of The Terror and what drove them. Danton, Robespierre, Saint Just, Marat were all men who got a grip on power and held onto it, no matter the cost. The September Massacre in 1793 was just the start, and by 1794 the numbers of people per month in the different towns who were guillotined were rising. They were arrested and held in prisons, and by the end to be accused was enough to find them guilty and sentence them to death.

But the details and the asides and the parenthetical sections are enough to just pull this book down. The subject matter alone is difficult, and add to that a break in the sentence to reference an incident or person, all create a wall of confusion instead of a clear narration of events.

What is fascinating is to see how the in-fighting resulted not in justice for the French, bread for the hungry, a new government that dealt with the ideas of Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity. As an example, Robespierre was not interested in governing, per his own words. He had an idea for what justice and an end to the Ancien Regime should look like, and friends to help him put it into place. And he spoke well and had the charisma to bring others to follow him, while knowing how to hold onto the reins of power to wrest it from his political enemies. But he had no conscience when it came to protecting the innocent or any sense of true justice for the accused.
… (meer)
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threadnsong | 3 andere besprekingen | Jun 18, 2016 |
This is a very well written historical narrative that, despite its title, really covers the whole of the French revolutionary period from the fall of the Bastille in July 1789 up to and beyond the fall of Robespierre in July 1794. The author conveys the spirit of the times very well - the huge thirst for change and something different from the past, which could be discerned even when the ideals of the Revolution became so besmirched with the blood of many people during the reign of terror (the majority of these not, however, being the aristocrats of popular imagination); and the attempt to create a sense of solidarity against internal and external enemies, both real and perceived, a necessary move in some ways, but eventually grotesquely distorted under Robespierre so that any opposition to his rule was seen as treachery and anti-patriotic. The disintegration into factional strife and the fall of various groups, the Girondins, the Hebertists, the Indulgents (Dantonists) and finally the Robespierrists, over a period of only a few months is excitingly and horrifically recounted. All in all, this is an excellent account of five of the most important years in modern world history, in that they paved the way for more modern representative government in the nineteenth and subsequent centuries, spelled the death knell of absolutist monarchy in western Europe (Napoleon notwithstanding) and gave birth to modern concepts such as liberty, equality and human rights. 5/5… (meer)
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john257hopper | 3 andere besprekingen | Feb 19, 2013 |

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Statistieken

Werken
14
Leden
531
Populariteit
#46,874
Waardering
½ 3.7
Besprekingen
7
ISBNs
38
Talen
2
Favoriet
1

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