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Books Related to Origins of the French Revolution William Doyle - ISBN: 0198731744
Authoritative - Rated
I came to this from a position of considerable ignorance. Doyle's introductory section reviews the development of views about the French Revolution over the last hundred years. I was struck by the passion invested in these differences. But when I came to the main text I realised what a colossal change the Revolution was, perhaps even more then the English Revolution in the previous century. For France swept away centuries of feudal and subsequent layers of administration, obligations and hierarchies, almost overnight, owing to a combination of literacy and education, financial meltdown (the government was seriously broke) and a succession of poor harvests.
The influence of the English (to some extent) and more particularly the American Revolutions was paramount.
This book is rather hazy and mazy at times, but the more it gets into its stride you get a gratifyingly sophisticated, complex and penetratingly comprehensive class analysis whose dynamism is convincingly traced.
Origins of the French Rev. Book, W. Doyle - Review - Rated
Book in generally good condition (even had all the pages, which is always a good thing!) and I have no complaints. Thank you - amazing for what I paid for it. Arrived in about 4 days, in time for my uni essays. Thanks.
CT
Brisk, analytical and direct - Rated
There is of course a daunting amount of literature on the French Revoloution which often means that first-time students are often faced with a lottery concerning the book they choose. This book has no pretentions whatsoever to being all encompassing or a psycho-sociological analysis of the revoloution itself. Dealing with the pre 1789 period it is an admirably clear re-examination of the fall of the ancient regime. Comprehensively written and free of academic snobbery it charts the relaxation of rigid absoloutism and the development both of coherent political opposition and a relevant public opinion, both concepts that were unheard of in the archetypal monarchy of Loius XIV. Seditious pamphlets that had traditionally been confined to exile in the Netherlands found their way back into France and criticism of the establishment grew in a crescendo: the street and the parlements echoing one another and feeding in confidence off of one another. Doyle thus lands us in the years immediately prior to 1789 and guides us through the domino series of economic ministers, victims of the sustained, and now infamous financial crisis that so relentlessly exposed the dire infrastructure of French government. Finally we are presented with a synopsis of events that led to the walls of the Bastille and a conclusion: all in all less than 200 pages. This is a very businesslike book with no room for sentiment, philosophy or lyricism but in its digestible form, leaves the reader clear on the major points, a task many other histories have failed in. Reccomended for anyone looking for a clear explanation for the end of the ancien regime.
