This is an extended essay by the 19th century German diplomat Friedrich Gentz comparing the American and the French Revolutions. What is particularly unique about the work is that it was translated into English by the future president John Quincey Adams who had become familiar with the work while ambassador to Prussia. This edition provides the translation of John Quincey Adams together with extensive footnotes and a fine introduction by Koslowski. ( )

The list of works pertaining to the historical genre of the French Revolution is quite long yet there are 2 phases that are discernable. The first phase relates the serious implications & impact of that revolution on Europe after its collapse & Napoleon's rise & fall. The 2nd phase are the works that worked backyards from the Russian Revolution since 1917. In this work (the 1st phase) which J Q Adams translated from the German, von Gentz' work on the French Revolution in which he compares the history of the American Revolution with the French Revolution. In it, the author writes a devastating critique in which the French Revolution had little or no common links to the American Revolution. Only in that they are both revolutions is the common link. Beyond this label, the contrast is stark not only in the attempt to base the French Revolution on impractical philosophical ideals whereas the American Revolution was based on long standing grievances over Parliament's insistence on taxation without representation & the King's demands but also the degeneration & increasing scale of violence wreaked on those who refused or who were accused of failing to adhere to the ever changing principles for whatever group was in power whereas in the American Revolution, the unchanging principles formulated under the Declaration of Independence held steady in the face of military disasters & economic dislocations. Von Gentz' careful analysis of this period impressed J Q Adams to translate from German which originally appeared in a German history magazine. The reader may find this work a challenge since today's view (2nd phase) of the French Revolution seem in contradiction. I leave the reader to decide which is more historically accurate. ( )