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A strinking account of the impact of the French Revolution in Paris, across the French countryside, and around the globe
The French Revolution has fascinated, perplexed, and inspired for more than two centuries. It was a seismic event that radically transformed France and launched shock waves across the world. In this provocative new history, Peter McPhee draws on a lifetime's study of eighteenth-century France and Europe to create an entirely fresh account of the world's first great modern revolutionâ??its origins, drama, complexity, and significance.
Was the Revolution a major turning point in Frenchâ??even worldâ??history, or was it instead a protracted period of violent upheaval and warfare that wrecked millions of lives? McPhee evaluates the Revolution within a genuinely global context: Europe, the Atlantic region, and even farther. He acknowledges the key revolutionary events that unfolded in Paris, yet also uncovers the varying experiences of French citizens outside the gates of the city: the provincial men and women whose daily lives were alteredâ??or notâ??by developments in the capital. Enhanced with evocative stories of those who struggled to cope in unpredictable times, McPhee's deeply researched book investigates the changing personal, social, and cultural world of the eighteenth century. His startling conclusions redefine and illuminate both the experience and the legacy of France's transformative age of revolution.
"McPhee...skillfully and with consummate clarity recounts one of the most complex events in modern history.... [This] extraordinary work is destined to be the standard account of the French Revolution for years to come."â??Publishers Weekly (starre
The focus on how the provinces reacted to what happened in Paris is a logical choice but because his explanation of what happened in Paris is so thin, even in terms of just the basic facts, a lot of the time you don't have the context to understand why X town is doing what it is. A lot of random stories and details about single small settlements are included but they don't form a cohesive whole or give you an understanding of how X broad area of France reacted. When useful statistics are introduced which give you an idea of opinion past anecdotes, they're still hard to interpret - for example if x% of priests in y area were non jurors, I have no idea what the size of y area is or where it is because I'm not familiar with the administrative geography of Revolutionary France!
Neither of these make the book bad exactly but I just keep feeling like I'm missing key information or it's just assumed I'll know it. There's lots of interesting stuff but I'm missing a big picture understanding of lots of stuff too ( )