French Revolution

W. Doyle, The French Revolution: A Very Short Introduction. (Oxford: OUP, 2001) 152 pages.


1. Echoes

* Cross-channel perspectives
* Dramatic depictions
* Twentieth-century parallels
* The Corsican contribution
* Human rights
* A disputed legacy


2. Why it happened

* Financial overstretch
* The ancien regime: government
* The ancien regime: society
* Public opinion
* The `Pre-Revolution'


3. How it happened

* Electoral politics
* National sovereignty
* The first reform
* Polarization: religion
* Polarization: monarchy
* Polarization: war
* Civil war and terror
* The Thermidean dilemma
* The Directory
* Napoleon


4. What it ended

* Despotism
* Aristocracy
* The confessional state
* Dynastic diplomacy
* Colonial slavery
* Redrawn maps
* Achievable dreams
* Resistance and persistence
* Illusory restorations
* A world transformed


5. What it started

* Totalitarian demorcracy
* Liberalism
* The People
* Terror
* Left and right
* Conspirators and revolutionaries
* Patterns and paradigms
* Conservatism, reaction and religion
* Rationalization
* A limited legacy


6. Where it stands

* A historical challenge
* The classic interpretation
* Revisionism
* Post-revisionism
* The bicentenary
* The end of a dream?