The French Revolution (Revolutions in the Modern World) - Softcover

Bosher, J. F.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 039395997X ISBN 13: 9780393959970

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company, 1989

Synopsis

For those who regard the French Revolution as tribal myth told and retold, this new interpretation will come as a shock.

Bosher situates the revolutionary struggle not in an atmosphere of sharp class alignment, but instead with socially mixed and transient groupings. He goes deeply into the pre-Revolutionary period, examining the stresses in the social and political order of the ancien regime, as well as the ideas of the wealthy that circulated in the salons and permeated the journals and leaflets read by the populace.

Central to the account is Professor Bosher's argument, novel and fully documented, that behind the tumult was a generation of revolutionaries whose revolution was not premeditated and a series of events that were anything but inevitable even once the powder keg was ignited.

About this title

From Library Journal

Bosher's well-documented account deserves attention for its independence of mind. Challenging historical determinists, particularly Marxists, Bosher shows that the Revolution was neither premeditated nor inevitable. The revolutionary struggle took place among socially mixed and transient groups rather than fixed classes. The cause of the "people" is no more inherently sympathetic than that of French nationalists, Marxists, royalists, feminists, or others, since crimes committed in the name of the "people" were cruel and bloody. Included are a useful, detailed chronology of events and biographical notes on leading Revolutionary figures. Highly recommended. William C. McCully, Park Ridge P.L., Ill.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Publication date: 1989
• ISBN 10: 039395997X
• ISBN 13: 9780393959970
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 416