French Revolution: The Basics is an accessible and concise introduction to the history of the revolution in France. Combining a traditional narrative with documents of the era and references to contemporary imagery of the revolution, the book traces the long-and short-term causes of the French Revolution as well as its consequences up to the dissolution of the Convention and the ascendancy of Napoleon. The book is written with an explicit aim for its reader to acquire understanding of the past whilst imparting knowledge using underlying historical concepts such as evidence, continuity and change, cause and effect, significance, empathy, perspectives, and contestability. Key topics discussed within the book include: The structure of French society before 1789. The long- and short-term factors that contributed to the French Revolution. How ordinary French people, including women and slaves, participated in the revolution. What brought about the end of the ancien régime. The major reforms of the National Assembly, 1789–1791, and how they lead to the division and radicalisation of the revolution. How the alternative visions of the new society divided the revolution and what were the internal and external pressures on the revolution that contributed to its radicalisation. The forms of terror which enabled reality to triumph over the idealism. The rise of Napoleon Bonaparte as military leader and Emperor. This book is an ideal introduction for anyone wishing to learn more about this influential revolution in the shaping of modern Europe and the world.

French Revolution: The Basics is an accessible and concise introduction to the history of the revolution in France. Combining a traditional narrative of with documents of the era and references to contemporary imagery of the revolution, the book traces the long and short term causes of the French Revolution as well as its consequences up to the dissolution of the Convention and the ascendancy of Napoleon. The book is written with an explicit aim for its reader to acquire understanding of the past whilst imparting knowledge using the underlying the historical concepts such as evidence, continuity and change, cause and effect, significance, empathy, perspectives, and contestability. Key topics discussed within the book include: The structure of French society before 1789. The long- and short-term factors that contributed to the French Revolution. How ordinary French people, including women and slaves participated in the revolution. What brought about the end of the ancien regime. The major reforms of the National Assembly, 1789-1791 and how they lead to the division and radicalisation of the revolution. How did the alternative visions of the new society divide the revolution and what were the internal and external pressures on the revolution that contributed to its radicalisation. The forms of terror which enabled reality triumph over the idealism. The rise of Napoleon Bonaparte as military leader and Emperor. This book is an ideal introduction for anyone wishing to learn more about this influential revolution in the shaping of modern Europe and the world.

The Oxford Handbook of the French Revolution brings together a sweeping range of expert and innovative contributions to offer engaging and thought-provoking insights into the history and historiography of this epochal event. Each chapter presents the foremost summations of academic thinking on key topics, along with stimulating and provocative interpretations and suggestions for future research directions. Placing core dimensions of the history of the French Revolution in their transnational and global contexts, the contributors demonstrate that revolutionary times demand close analysis of sometimes tiny groups of key political actors - whether the king and his ministers or the besieged leaders of the Jacobin republic - and attention to the deeply local politics of both rural and urban populations. Identities of class, gender and ethnicity are interrogated, but so too are conceptions and practices linked to citizenship, community, order, security, and freedom: each in their way just as central to revolutionary experiences, and equally amenable to critical analysis and reflection. This Handbook covers the structural and political contexts that build up to give new views on the classic question of the 'origins of revolution'; the different dimensions of personal and social experience that illuminate the political moment of 1789 itself; the goals and dilemmas of the period of constitutional monarchy; the processes of destabilisation and ongoing conflict that ended that experiment; the key issues surrounding the emergence and experience of 'terror'; and the short- and long-term legacies, for both good and ill, of the revolutionary trauma - for France, and for global politics.

A study of the historiography of the Revolution, demonstrating the successive stages of British opinion.

Rouget de Lisle's famous anthem, La marseillaise, admirably reflects the confidence and enthusiasm of the early years of the French Revolution. But the effects on music of the Revolution and the events that followed it in France were more far-reaching than that. Hymns, chansons and even articles of the Constitution set to music in the form of vaudevilles all played their part in disseminating Revolutionary ideas and principles; music education was reorganized to compensate for the loss of courtly institutions and the weakened maitrises of cathedrals and churches. Opera, in particular, was profoundly affected, in both its organization and its subject matter, by the events of 1789 and the succeeding decade. The essays in this book, written by specialists in the period, deal with all these aspects of music in Revolutionary France, highlighting the composers and writers who played a major role in the changes that took place there. They also identify some of the traditions and genres that survived the Revolution, and look at the effects on music of Napoleon's invasion of Italy.

The French Revolution, an event of world historical importance that gave birth to modern politics, has long been a subject of debate. Naturally, the question of its origins remains a key area of controversy. This collection of essays by a team of distinguished experts in the field offers original but approachable views and interpretations that will engage students and scholars alike. Each chapter contains new research and focuses upon a major strand of the present debate. The Origins of the French Revolution explores: - The process of decision-making - the financial crisis - The Paris parlement - Pamphlet literature - The ideas of the Enlightenment - Peasant involvement - The Estates General of 1789 Chapters on art and theatre, on the development of cultural history, and the corrosive role of religious conflict upon the fabric of the monarchy ensure that stimulating new perspectives now form a key part of future discussion. A full introduction considers the nature of the debate and offers a thought-provoking interpretation of the crisis of the absolute monarchy that led to the collapse of state and society in the summer of 1789.

This book, first published in 2004, offers an interesting synthesis of the long- and short-term causes of the French Revolution.