A People's History of the French Revolution

Download or read book A People's History of the French Revolution written by Eric Hazan and published by Verso Books. This book was released on 2014-09-16 with total page 505 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The assault on the Bastille, the Reign of Terror, Danton mocking his executioner, Robespierre dispensing a fearful justice, and the archetypal gadfly Marat - the events and figures of the French Revolution have exercised a hold on the historical imagination for more than 200 years. It has been a template for heroic insurrection and, to more conservative minds, a cautionary tale. Looking at history from the bottom up, Hazan presents the revolution as a rational and pure struggle for emancipation. In this new history, the first significant account of the French Revolution in over twenty years, Hazan maintains that it fundamentally changed the Western world - for the better.