At the offset there were not one, but two revolutions: egalitarian and authoritarian. The tension between the two characterized the period and shaped the Republic that in the end emerged from the ruins of the Ancient Regime. The author provides an account of the years leading up to the Revolution and of the Revolution itself.

List of Illustrations. Acknowledgements. Foreword. Part I: The French Revolution. 1. The Ancien Regime. 2. The Revolution of 1789. 3. The Jacobin Republic. 4. The Thermidorian Republic. 5. Napoleon Bonaparte. Part II: Ending the Revolution. 6. The Restoration. 7. The July Monarchy. 8. The Second Republic. 9. The Second Empire. 10. The Republic. Appendix 1: Chronology. Appendix 2: The Republican Calendar for Year II (1793-1794). Bibliography. Glossary. Index of Names. Index of Subjects.

This is an account of 110 years of turbulence and change. At the offset there were not one, but two revolutions: by intent the first was egalitarian, the second - Bonaparte's - authoritarian. The tension between the two characterized the period and shaped the Republic that in the end emerged from the ruins of the Ancien Regime. The narrative begins in the last years of Louis XVI. The author provides a graphic account of the years leading up to the Revolution and of the Revolution itself. The sovereignty of the people was as absolute as the monarchy it replaced, and the Terror was its tragic and inevitable consequence. In 1799, after a well planned and executed military coup, Bonaparte seized power and within five years had made himself France's first emperor. Napoleon conquered not only half of Europe but the aspirations of the Revolution, and put in place the laws and institutions by which France is still largely governed. Yet the Revolutionary ideology of liberty and equality survived Napoleon and two restorations of the monarchy, reemerging in the popular uprisings of 1830, 1848 and 1871, and finally finding constitutional expression in the Third Republic of 1871. Revolutionary France is a vivid narrative history. It is also a radical reinterpretation of the period, and testimony to the power both of ideas and of personality in movements of the past.

"An outstanding work of synthesis and imagination." Ian McIntyre, The Times "This brilliant book by one of France's leading historians is the second to be published in a five-volume History of France from 987 to 1987. It is as elegantly written as it is translated. The style is lively." Sunday Telegraph "Everyone interested in the French Revolution and its consequences should read this important, stimulating and accessible book." Times Literary Supplement "Anyone with an interest in the period will find, along with a rich and powerful narrative, some remarkably stimulating, profound and humane reflections on France's complex political experience." Times Higher Education Supplement "An impressive, even dazzling achievement." London Review of Books "Francois Furet has a good claim to be considered the leading living historian of the French revolution. A very well written book, skilfully translated by Antonia Nevill." History Today "The bicentennial of the French Revolution has brought forth many fine histories of that pivotal event in as many languages. But none has attained the scope of Furet's volume in the projected five-volume history of France from 987 AD to 1987. Superbly translated from the French by Antonia Nevill, Furet's handsome volume charts a critical century in that 1,000 years." Journal of Interdisciplinary History