![]() Cover of the first edition | |
Author | William Doyle |
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Language | English |
Subject | The French Revolution |
Publisher | Oxford University Press |
Publication date | 1989 |
Publication place | United Kingdom |
Media type | Print (Hardcover and Paperback) |
Pages | 496 (second edition) |
ISBN | 978-0199252985 |
The Oxford History of the French Revolution (1989; second edition 2002; third edition 2018) is a history of the French Revolution by the British historian William Doyle, in which the author analyzes the impact of the revolutionary events in France and in the rest of Europe.
The book received positive reviews, complimenting Doyle for the fairness with which he dealt with the Revolution. Its approach has been described as "revisionist", and the book has been compared to the historian Simon Schama's Citizens: A Chronicle of the French Revolution (1989) and J. F. Bosher's The French Revolution (1988). It has been used as a textbook.
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Running from the accession of Louis XVI in 1774, the Oxford History of the French Revolution traces the history of France through revolution, terror, and counter-revolution to the final triumph of Napoleon in 1802. It also analyses the impact of events in France upon the rest of Europe and the world beyond. [1] The study shows how a movement which began with optimism and general enthusiasm soon became a tragedy, not only for the ruling orders, but also for the millions of ordinary people whose lives were disrupted by religious upheaval, economic chaos, and civil and international war.
The Oxford History of the French Revolution was first published by Oxford University Press in 1989. A second edition was published in 2002, [2] and a third edition in 2018. [3]
The Oxford History of the French Revolution received positive reviews from the historian Colin Jones in The Times Literary Supplement , [4] Michael Broers in History , [5] the historian Malcolm Crook in the European Review of History , [6] and the historian Norman Hampson in The English Historical Review , [7] and a mixed review from Thomas J. Schaeper in Library Journal . [8] The book was also discussed in History Today . [9]
Jones compared the book to Schama's Citizens, describing them as "the most important histories of the French Revolution to appear in English in this bicentenary year" and finding it significant that they both viewed the Revolution "as essentially a tragedy". He considered both books "revisionist" in their approach. He described The Oxford History of the French Revolution as "sober, lucid and authoritative", adding that he expected it to "become the standard textbook for the period" and that Doyle approached the subject fairly. However, he considered Doyle "stronger on judicious description than on analysis and exegesis", believing that he offered "political chronology in its tactical and quotidian dimensions rather than an interpretation of the Revolution in terms of wider processes", and that his arguments were sometimes inconsistent. [4]
Broers described the book's approach as "revisionist", comparing it to D. M. G. Sutherland's France, 1789-1815: Revolution and Counterrevolution (1985), as well as Bosher's The French Revolution and Schama's Citizens. He agreed with Doyle's view of the French Revolution as "an essentially political event" and his emphasis on "the importance of the patriot revolt in the United Provinces". He also credited Doyle with providing a "clear and comprehensive" discussion of the French Revolution, including a careful and fair critique of Marxist interpretations. He described the book as a "work of great integrity". [5] Crook credited Doyle with providing an account of the French Revolution that was "sober and balanced", as well as comprehensive and clear. He wrote that the first edition of the book rightly received "plaudits from reviewers in both academic journals and the general press." He noted that many teachers had adopted it as a textbook. However, he noted that the second edition included "relatively few" improvements over the first edition. [6]
Hampson described the book as a "splendid" that had "deservedly become a standard academic textbook". He credited Doyle with showing, "a remarkably encyclopaedic knowledge" of the era of the French Revolution, and discussing its events impartially. [7]
Schaeper wrote that Doyle advanced a "revisionist approach to the French Revolution". He considered it familiar from Doyle's previous work, noting that the book repeated material from Origins of the French Revolution (2nd edition, 1988). Though he considered Doyle's "scholarship and logic" impressive, he considered the book inferior to Schama's Citizens and Bosher's The French Revolution. [8] History Today noted that the book was one of a number of recent works on the French Revolution. [9]
The French Revolution was a period of political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789, and ended with the coup of 18 Brumaire in November 1799 and the formation of the French Consulate. Many of its ideas are considered fundamental principles of liberal democracy, while its values and institutions remain central to modern French political discourse.
Georges Jacques Danton was a leading figure in the French Revolution. A modest and unknown lawyer on the eve of the Revolution, Danton became a famous orator of the Cordeliers Club and was raised to governmental responsibilities as the French Minister of Justice following the fall of the monarchy on the tenth of August 1792, and was allegedly responsible for inciting the September Massacres. He was tasked by the National Convention to intervene in the military conquest of Belgium led by French General Dumouriez. And in the Spring of 1793, he supported the foundation of a Revolutionary Tribunal and became the first president of the Committee of Public Safety.
The Society of the Friends of the Constitution, renamed the Society of the Jacobins, Friends of Freedom and Equality after 1792 and commonly known as the Jacobin Club or simply the Jacobins, was the most influential political club during the French Revolution of 1789. The period of its political ascendancy includes the Reign of Terror, during which well over 10,000 people were put on trial and executed in France, many for political crimes.
The Girondins, or Girondists, were a political group during the French Revolution. From 1791 to 1793, the Girondins were active in the Legislative Assembly and the National Convention. Together with the Montagnards, they initially were part of the Jacobin movement. They campaigned for the end of the monarchy, but then resisted the spiraling momentum of the Revolution, which caused a conflict with the more radical Montagnards. They dominated the movement until their fall in the insurrection of 31 May – 2 June 1793, which resulted in the domination of the Montagnards and the purge and eventual mass execution of the Girondins. This event is considered to mark the beginning of the Reign of Terror.
The Battle of Valmy, also known as the Cannonade of Valmy, was the first major victory by the army of France during the Revolutionary Wars that followed the French Revolution. The battle took place on 20 September 1792 as Prussian troops commanded by the Duke of Brunswick attempted to march on Paris. Generals François Kellermann and Charles Dumouriez stopped the advance near the northern village of Valmy in Champagne-Ardenne.
The sans-culottes were the common people of the lower classes in late 18th-century France, a great many of whom became radical and militant partisans of the French Revolution in response to their poor quality of life under the Ancien Régime. The word sans-culotte, which is opposed to "aristocrat", seems to have been used for the first time on 28 February 1791 by Jean-Bernard Gauthier de Murnan in a derogatory sense, speaking about a "sans-culottes army". The word came into vogue during the demonstration of 20 June 1792.
The historiography of the French Revolution stretches back over two hundred years.
There is significant disagreement among historians of the French Revolution as to its causes. Usually, they acknowledge the presence of several interlinked factors, but vary in the weight they attribute to each one. These factors include cultural changes, normally associated with the Enlightenment; social change and financial and economic difficulties; and the political actions of the involved parties. For centuries, the French society was divided into three estates or orders.
Sir Simon Michael Schama is an English historian and television presenter. He specialises in art history, Dutch history, Jewish history, and French history. He is a Professor of History and Art History at Columbia University.
Louis Antoine Léon de Saint-Just, sometimes nicknamed the Archangel of Terror, was a French revolutionary, political philosopher, member and president of the French National Convention, a Jacobin club leader, and a major figure of the French Revolution. As the youngest member elected to the National Convention, Saint-Just belonged to the Mountain faction. A steadfast supporter and close friend of Robespierre, he was swept away in his downfall during 9th Thermidor.
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Norman Hampson was an English historian, Professor of History at the University of York from 1974 to 1989. He was a leading authority on the history of the French Revolution, known for challenging the orthodoxies of the dominant "French school" of revolutionary studies. He wrote an authoritative work on the social history of the Revolution.
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Citizens: A Chronicle of the French Revolution is a book by the historian Simon Schama, published in 1989, the bicentenary of the French Revolution.
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William Doyle is a British historian, specialising in 18th-century France, who is most notable for his one-volume Oxford History of the French Revolution.
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