A New World Begins: The History of the French RevolutionFrom an award-winning historian, a “vivid” (Wall Street Journal) account of the revolution that created the modern world The French Revolution’s principles of liberty and equality still shape our ideas of a just society—even if, after more than two hundred years, their meaning is more contested than ever before. In A New World Begins, Jeremy D. Popkin offers a riveting account of the revolution that puts the reader in the thick of the debates and the violence that led to the overthrow of the monarchy and the establishment of a new society. We meet Mirabeau, Robespierre, and Danton, in all their brilliance and vengefulness; we witness the failed escape and execution of Louis XVI; we see women demanding equal rights and Black slaves wresting freedom from revolutionaries who hesitated to act on their own principles; and we follow the rise of Napoleon out of the ashes of the Reign of Terror. Based on decades of scholarship, A New World Begins will stand as the definitive treatment of the French Revolution. |
Contents
and the Crisis of 17871788 | |
A Nation Aroused June 1788May 1789 | |
Revolution in a Tennis Court From the Estates General | |
A Peoples Revolution JulyAugust 1789 | |
A New World Divided January 1790June 1791 | |
A Runaway King and a Constitutional Crisis June | |
A Second Revolution October 1791August 1792 | |
The Revolution on the Brink JuneDecember 1793 | |
The Arc of Terror JanuaryJuly 1794 | |
The Republics New Start July 1794October 1795 | |
The Republic in Question October 1795September 1797 | |
From Fructidor to Brumaire September 1797November | |
The Slow Death of the Republic 17991804 | |
About the Author | |