The French Revolution Paperback – January 9, 2018

I read a lot of history I think this is the best general reader history of the French Revolution I have ever read. The writing was excellent. Great balance of facts and analysis. Would recommend this highly for both general public and others wishing to understand exactly what seems to have happened. It wasn’t all guillotines

Good book. Well written.

Today I finished this really good book on one of the seminal events of modernity. The French Revolution has a tendency to be caricatured by people who have little understanding of it or the context in which it happened. This book seems to cut through partisan histories and gives an excellent account of the key events surrounding the French Revolution. It provides a lot of insight into how a country, such as 18th century France, could spiral into what has become a byword... the Terror. The book also contains a series of appendices that I found to be highly succinct and interesting.

I bought this book for personal interest, having finished a history of the U.S. Revolution and the involvement of LaFayette. Reads like a novel and am very glad that it is not U.S. history. Only comment for improvement of a new edition: too many names introduced that, while important at the event, never appear again and create confusion. Perhaps an appendix of incidental players or as part of the notes. Inclusion of superfluous names detracts from the narrative. Overall, well worth reading.

The way the author develops his story is of an immense interest, since he maintains the King's surrender to the tiers etat precedes the fall of the Bastille, the storming of the Bastille itself cannot serve even as a symbolic event of the French Revolution itself. His audacious effort to RE-WRITE on the tiers etat and of the Revolution does not seem to have succeeded. Davidson's book reminds me of Philipp Bloom's "A Wicked Company (2010),"an interesting introduction to the European Enlightenment.

Karma...the ancient Greeks had a God for it because what comes around...well you know the rest. Not many people know the French Revolution but they should educate themselves to the Jacobins, The 3rd Estate, Rousseau, Robbiespierre (The Uncorruptable), The Marriage of Figuro. Truly this revolution marks the dangerous pursuit of the unconstrained vision of man. Also where we got the 'sound bite' for those into theatrical political speeches which dominated the French Revolution.

I was stunned to read the unfiltered story of the French Revolution and how quickly an illiterate mob and ambitious “group think”people wrecked an economy and ruthlessly slaughtered its citizens in four short years. The story of the past has similarities to current events!

I highly recommend this book. I am a history buff and this book is very well written