Customer Reviews

Vive la Revolution: A Stand-up History of the French Revolution

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This book is a great place to start if you want to know the history of the French Revolution. It's a great survey of the whole period, and it's written in a hilarious and totally accessible way that makes it a page-turner (something I really can't say about many other history books). The other thing is that Mark Steel is sympathetic to the goals of the revolution. There's been a lot of bunk written about the French Revolution by conservatives wanting to make it seem like the French went crazy for blood, the King and Queen were really okay, and the revolution only made things worse. That's not true, and Mark Steel sets the record straight.

I find that too many history books are written "by academics, for academics." This book is definitely *not* in that category.

The humor is corny, but the rest of the book is strong enough to compensate. I think the French Revolution is a fascinating period and appreciated that Steel worked so hard to make each chapter accessible to someone who knows little about the period (i.e. me). I whipped through it in a few days and missed reading it when I was done.

Summarizing:
Light read + interesting material = two days of fun + a greater understanding of the revolution

This is a very funny, and also a very human book about the French Revolution. While it's often quite hilarious (Steel is a professional comedian), what really makes it so engaging is the way he presents the history itself. He helps you imagine what it actually must have felt like for people to realize, for the first time, that they could create society anew.

I read Steel's book alongside several more "serious" historical works on the subject for a class. This was at least as good at explaining the revolution (maybe better because Steel is so good at expressing the significance of the story as he tells it), and many times more enjoyable to read. Highly recommended.

Steel's delightful little primer on the 18th century "regime change" they had in France should be required reading for all history authors. Yes, Steel is irreverent and he is a comedian, so his apparently frivolous style can be dismissed as the scribblings of an amateur. Doing so would miss the point of good writing; don't take your subject so seriously that you forget Rule Number One; Don't let the reader fall asleep. In this Steel admirably succeeds, sprinkling anecdotes, witty reflections and significant historical highlights throughout, letting the casually interested reader taste enough of the subject to want to know more. To this effect, Steel provides a nice summation of relevant tomes on the major characters and events written by more "sophisticated" authors. His observations on the issues of then versus today are, at times, a bit of a stretch, but ideologically I'm on the same page with this dude. Revolution may be a cure for what ails this country, with Bush the new Louis XVI. I wish the analogy could be brought to its full fruition.

VIVE LA REVOLUTION: A STAND-UP HISTORY OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION is more revealing than your usual dry history, offering a survey of the French revolution's philosophies, key people, and ideals with a eye to defining individuals and their effects on the Revolution. Here's a spirited treatment which is both funny and pointed, injecting humor and critical observation to make for an engrossing and lively survey perfect for high school to college-level holdings seeking student interest in French history.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

Mark Steel does a good job of making the French Revolution come to life. He gives us a feel for the huge leap made from awe at the very sight of royalty to disgust at the aristocratic nerve of them. His perspective isn't perfect as the humor occasionally reflects the real story with an adolescent pall. Still, I don't see him as pretending that what he has to say is the encyclopedic version of that revolution, but he does convey how extremely pressing the real life issues were for the French. I enjoyed reading the book and did pick up some information which helped me see the situation with more depth. If occasionally he made a small error in detail, I can see how easy that would be to do. Chroniclers argue about what actually happened yesterday, so having some problems getting it all straight several hundred years later seems inevitable. He conveys his enthusiasm for the subject matter which is what good teachers can do.

The book gives an inteligent reader the real flavor of the events, the feeling of the atmosphere in which the french revolution started and developed. and this is done with humor and love towards all the participants. Mark Steel adores and understands the mob the aristocrats, the king and queen the french language but all of those are delicately smirked at. His knowlege of dates and facts never makes the narrative dull or boring.His thinking creatively takes situations into our update reality and effectively compares them to current events. Vive Mark Steel!

As an overview of the French Revolution from the start in 1789 through to the reign of Napoleon this book is an excellent review of events with intelligent insight into causes and motives, done with a British sense of humour. While debunking some myths and challenging the statements of some other scholars the author also brings a viewpoint of the "worker" into focus based on his own experiences in being part of labor movement protests that never went nearly so far as a Reign of Terror.
Having read several other more in depth books on the revolution I enjoyed this step-back approach. I think I got more out of this for having read other material on the subject first; but one could read this as an introductory or as only source material.
It also has an excellent bibliography for further reading.

I'm not sure what to make of this book. I very much like the idea of presenting history in an accessible and funny way and it definitely is a good read.
Still, as others mentioned too, I'm not sure about the facts. I think in the first chapter, Mark Steel writes that it was Louis XVI who said "L'état c'est moi", when I think it actually was Louis XIV! Please do correct me if I'm wrong, it really confuses me ever since reading this passage in Steel's book. How can an author make such a mistake when he's writing a book about the French Revolution!?
That's why I'm giving the book 3 stars - because I'm not sure if what I learned by reading the book is wrong or right! :(

I have been looking for a short concise history of the French Revolution. I saw this and asked for it as a stocking stuffer. I was disappointed in it because the author is a liberal/progressive who bends his arguments to fit his liberal/progressive viewpoint. For example, he says that America should learn more about the French Revolution because it was the Revolution created the ideas that America is based on. The Decleration of Independence, the philisophical underpinning of America, was written 13 years before the storming of the Bastille. He criticizes the tax system of 18th century France and the treatment of peasants and I'm wondering who has ever defended the tax system of 18th century France? Who exactly is defending the idea that workers had to work 18 hour days just to feed and clothe their family?

The idea that you can tie the Ancient Regime to the administration of George W. Bush is a stretch. He then argues that the French Revolution is criticized in popular culture is a mystery to me when we all know the phrase "liberty, equality and fraternity." I also think he is just plain wrong on dates.

I think it deserves 3 stars because it is like reading an argument that you have to rebut paragraph by paragraph. That is fun lunch-time reading. I also though some of his jokes were funny.

In conclusion, not a purchase but a library rental.