Customer Reviews

Revolutionary France 1770-1880 (History of France)

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The fourth book in The History of France series, all written by eminent french historians, is not what American readers will expect from a traditional survey. Instead of a catalogue of events leading the narrative, Furet focuses almost exclusively on the development of political thought throughout the 19th century and its practical consequences on the compostion of successive governments and their oppositions. Assuming familiarity on the part of the reader, Furet mentions events only as they correspond to his grand political science narrative.
Beginning with the ancien regime we see rigid class stratification bend under the debates on the nature of sovereignty and liberty. The grand stage of the French Revolution serves as the laboratory for class warfare and transformation, and the birthplace of class consciousness and new everchanging political identities contingent on men and events. Furet illuminates how the French continued to battle over the issues and vendettas chrystallized by the Revolution throughout the 19th century. The battle lines are not manichean as Royalists split amongst Bourbons and Orleanists, and republicans between 1789 and 1793. And within each of those subcategories are born further multiplicities and loyalties across class boundaries.
As France modernizes the bougeoisie become more conservative and the general consensus becomes a search for the paradoxical combination of liberty and law. 1793 without the terror, 1848 without the July Days and socialism. For royalists of all stripes the issues revolve around the best form of monarchy in a modern society, to protect property from the growing strength of the populace.
Furet also portrays the evolution of historical accounts by the great academic politicians from Thiers to Toqueville, illuminating their struggle to define the Revolutionary heritage within their contemporaneous paradigms. This results in a seemless work of historiagraphy interwoven with history as it was made by the historians themselves.
While not incredibly informative on the minutae of the period the book is an indispensable introduction to the political and intellectual underpinnings of revolutionary France.

I'll second TE Chance's comments, adding only that readers coming to the French Revolution for the first time should not start with this book. Furet does indeed assume quite a high level of knowledge of the revolution among his readers. It is not so much a history of the revolution as it is a history of the IDEAS of the revolution, and how they morphed and interacted with events over time. It is long, densely written, and can be quite demanding of the reader's concentration. Those interested in a more straightforward chronology and description of the events of the revolution would be better served by a book like Simon Schama's CITIZENS, for instance.