Donald M.G. SutherlandReseñas

To me this is a passable review of the French revolution, but not something I would recommend to readers who are not historians. The author works his way from an overview of the Old Regime in the 18th century to a detailed presentation of the revolutionary years all the way to the fall of Napoleon. In principle, the book was exactly what I was looking for: an analysis of the various political twists and turns that occurred in this time of unstable upheaval.

However, although I found a few sections informative, for the most part the author's reasoning escaped my grasp. The reason for this was that I would have needed a course which explains who the Girondins, the Montagnards, the Chouans, the refractories, the conservative republicans (etc.) were, and what exactly the Directory, the Consulate, the Commune (etc.) was. In other words, the vocabulary which is used to present and discuss the actors of the French revolution is not explained at all to the uninitiated. The author just assumes that his readers already know who the different groups were and who did what to whom, so he just jumps straight into retrospective commentary. This commentary becomes quite confusing if you don't know what groups he is talking about.

Perhaps this book was simply intended for professional historians, so my layman's criticism is out of place. But even if I take that into consideration, I was still a bit disappointed by the lack of direction in the author's argument. I could not pick up many summarizing conclusions, although the general point that the revolution brought a lot of violence and suffering is certainly clear. All in all, I don't regret reading this book but it certainly isn't the ultimate presentation of the French political revolution.

I quite enjoyed this.
The tone, the pacing all worked for me.
The narrator kept blowing air through his nose and sucking in his breathe. It was grating over the course of the book.
I think this needed editing.
It was mostly like listening to a college lecture. I like that just needed the audio cleaned up.
This author doesn't have as much info about the situation with Louis XVI & Marie Antoinette as far as their actions while under control of the government.
I don't necessarily agree with the authors findings in all cases but I like that he labels Napoleon a dictator.

Required reading from my undergrad French Revolution and Napoleon history class. Very enjoyable.

Buono