Softcover

ISBN 10: 0006860184 ISBN 13: 9780006860181

Publisher: Fontana Press, 1985

Challenging classical histories of the French Revolution, this revisionist work argues that any history and analysis of the period must give as much weight to counterrevolution as to revolution itself. Sutherland demonstrates that the effects of the Revolution varied greatly according to regional economies, social structures, and religious affiliations. The book examines how massive counterrevolutionary movements profoundly affected the course of the Revolution, leading to the failure of constitutional government and, ultimately, to an elitist dictatorship that paved the way for many of the struggles of the 19th century. Synthesizing an abundance of information in a refreshingly new light, students and scholars will welcome this bold study on a decisive twenty-five years in French and world history.

About the Author:

Donald M.G. Sutherland is a Professor of History, University of Maryland, College Park.

Review:

"A very good overview of the period."--Christine Adams, St. Mary's College of Maryland

"[A] useful revisionist interpretation of the Revolution."--Anthony Di Iorio, Georgetown University

"Marvelous. That rare textbook that is also an exemplary piece of scholarship, working a thesis, argument, and evidence into a topic that in lesser books would settle into little but narrative. Also extremely useful because it acknowledges the Napoleonic era as part of the Revolutionary
period."--Robert S. Babcock, Hastings College