July 14 is Bastille Day, a national holiday in France that commemorates 235 years from the day a Parisian mob stormed the “infamous” prison and commenced the upheaval of the French Revolution. The collapse of Soviet communism should not deter the invocation of the dreadful legacy of the French Revolution, the same revolution that a […]
The reader could say that this compelling tome about the breathtaking events of the French Revolution during the Reign of Terror really comprises three books in one — three human conflict stories carefully webbed into the sinister tapestry of the French Revolution, particularly during the Reign of Terror (June 1793 to July 1794). This sanguinary
Paris in the Terror by Stanley Loomis Read More »
This book, in compelling narrative, makes is clear that the French Revolution actually began not with the clamor of the common people but with the blue-blooded aristocracy and the high clergy of the ancien régime who had been enamored with the writings of Jean-Jacques Rousseau and the views of the enlightenment (i.e., convincingly demonstrated in
Citizens: A Chronicle of the French Revolution by Simon Schama Read More »
This would have been one among the books Maximilien Robespierre would have chosen as an acceptable biography of himself, according him his rightful place in history. It is disturbing that so many readers of this book expressing their views in Amazon.com praise this idealized biography, once again reinterpreting the career of the authoritarian despot, who
The Revolutionary Career of Maximilien Robespierre by David P. Jordan Read More »
This biography of Robespierre, The Incorruptible, reads like a spellbinding novel, only that this book recounts more than the life of Robespierre. It graphically describes the horrors of the French Revolution and gives us vivid descriptions of all of the main participants in that orgy of blood, horror and death. It begins with the notorious
Robespierre: The Fool as Revolutionary by Otto Scott Read More »
