Threshold of Terror: The Last Hours of the Monarchy in the French Revolution [Illustrated] [Hardcover]

Rodney Allen (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 1999

The failure of the French Revolution of 1789 to establish stable political institutions based on a liberal constitutional monarchy led to terror, civil war and instability for France and twenty-three years of almost uninterrupted war for the rest of Europe. This account documents the crucial twenty-four hours over the 9 and 10 August 1792 which led to the fall of the king and set in motion the chain of events that culminated in the Reign of Terror. During this period, over 40,000 people were brought before the Revolutionary Tribunal and guillotined.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Independent scholar Allen (who read history at Oxford) sees in the August 10, 1792 Revolution in France the same failed attempt to establish "a new social and political era" that marked the October 25, 1917 Revolution in Russia. Using a number of eyewitness accounts previously unpublished in English, with direct quotations and paraphrases interwoven into the text, Allen has produced a marvelously detailed picture of the final hours of this crucial collapse and transformation of the high hopes that had begun in France with the fall of the Bastille in 1789. Its aftermath would be totalitarian politics, terror, civil war, and external conflict as a means both to rejoin a fractured society and to spread ideology. Recommended for academic libraries and larger European history collections.ARobert C. Jones, formerly with Central Missouri State Univ., Warrensburg
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Sutton Publishing; 1st edition (September 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0750920300
• ISBN-13: 978-0750920308
• Product Dimensions: 9.8 x 7 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,845,583 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)