32 of 33 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent Introduction, May 14, 2005
This review is from: The Oxford History of the French Revolution (Paperback)
The French Revolution is one of the most important events in modern history, went on for the better part of a decade, involved a large number of significant personages, has complex political, social, economic, and ideological dimensions, has generated a huge literature, and interpretation has been controversial often. This list gives an idea of the challenges involved in producing a good one volume overview. Despite these obstacles, William Doyle succeeds with a lucid and enjoyable book that seems not to neglect any important areas and is generally evenhanded in dealing with controversial issues.
Doyle presents the Revolution as a highly contingent event precipitated by the fiscal collapse of the French Monarchy, exacerbated by recent history of economic difficulties due to irregular and often poor harvests in France in the decade prior to the Revolution. Doyle is very good also on the long term trends - the increasing size of the bourgeosie, the rising literacy and importance of public opinion, the Enlightenment influenced disillusion with the sometimes arbitrary nature of traditional government - that set the stage for the Revolution and had a large effect on its outcomes. Still, Doyle's emphasis is on the basis narrative and he does very well in telling the story of the Revolution without either getting too bogged down in details or sliding over important issues. I recommend, however, that the first half of this book be read in conjunction with Doyle's concise (about 200 pages in a paperback edition) book on the Origins of the French Revolution. There is some redundancy in the narrative when reading both books but the Origins book stresses the underlying structural features in a complementary manner.
Doyle goes on with a sustained narrative to Napoleon's seizure of power. Doyle covers very well the achievements and common disastrous mistakes of the Revolutionary period. Some of these mistakes, like the disastrously mistaken policies towards the Catholic Church, were responsible for generating implacable hostility, both within and outside France, to the Revolution. A consistent theme is that war against internal and external enemies was a powerful radicalizing force, often responsible for many of the serious errors and crimes of the Revolution. Many sections are excellent; his discussion of revolutionary imperialism, for example, nicely explores the apparent paradox of a liberation movement becoming a ruthless exploiter. Doyle's description of the oscillations of the Revolution and the corrupt behavior of the last Revolutionary government, the Directory, give a very good sense of why so many people must have welcomed the dictatorship of Napoleon.
Doyle concludes with an interpretative chapter on the Revolution. In common with many recent historians, he sees the Revolution as a social disaster precipitated by good intentions. Among other causes, he cites the overconfidence of the original revolutionaries that they could remake society on rational grounds. This is both conventional and contains a lot of truth. For example, the attack on the Church essentially destroyed France's largest educational institution and its largest source of poor relief, both with severe adverse consequences. Doyle doesn't mention, however, that the Revolution engendered (largely under Napoleon) educational institutions that made French science and mathematics the world leader well into the 19th century. It is also possible to argue that one of the defects of the initial revolutionaries was not that they were too radical but that in important domains they weren't radical enough. In finance, the Revolution maintained the traditional French aversion to a strong state central bank like the Bank of England, something that might have mitigated the financial problems of the revolutionary governments. In the newly founded USA, the first Bank of the United States did play an important role in putting our governments on a firm footing. In religion, the initial revolutionaries attempted to rationalize and democratize the Church, with disastrous consequences. But, they wished to maintain a state sponsored Church, another traditional French approach. What if they had taken the really radical step of disestablishing religion and simply left religous practice alone?
In summary, this is an excellent book to begin study of the French Revolution.
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29 of 31 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
The Book that Wouldn't Die, February 7, 2008
This review is from: The Oxford History of the French Revolution (Paperback)
William Doyle's Oxford History of the French Revolution is a scholar's history. If anyone is looking for a single volume history of the French Revolution, this one has everything. Doyle exhaustively chronicles the the fate of France's social classes, the economic impact of the Revolution, the impact of near constant warfare, various political experiments, etc. There is virtually no aspect of the French Revolution that is left untouched.
I call this "the book that wouldn't die" because it took me almost a year to complete it. I would read, then along the way, I would find something more interesting, and consume that instead. Then I would try reading it again, and the process would repeat itself...
Doyle's history is exhaustive, scholarly, and a labor to read. It lacks the anecdotes and personal accounts that make history interesting and fun. If you need to complete a term paper, then this is the book for you. If you want entertainment (even a little bit) then you better look elsewhere.
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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Dense but informative, March 29, 2005
This review is from: The Oxford History of the French Revolution (Paperback)
Professor Doyle captures the intricacies of France leading to the French Revolution. His piece can be somewhat dense in parts which further detracts from the subject when mixed with the several grammatical and spelling errors contained within. While the style and format could be improved, the book is filled with useful information. Worth the read if you can get past the mildly annoying inaccuracies.
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