The French Revolution: From Enlightenment To Tyranny

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The fall of the Bastille on July 14, 1789 has become the commemorative symbol of the French Revolution. But this violent & random act was unrepresentative of the real work of the early revolution, which was taking place ten miles west of Paris, in Versailles. There, the nobles, clergy & commoners of France had just declared themselves a republic, toppling a rotten system of aristocratic privilege & altering the course of history forever. The Revolution was led not by angry mobs, but by the best & brightest of France`s growing bourgeoisie: young, educated, ambitious. Their aim was not to destroy, but to build a better state. In just three months they drew up a Declaration of the Rights of Man, which was to become the archetype of all subsequent Declarations worldwide, & they instituted a system of locally elected administration for France which still survives today. They were determined to create an entirely new system of government, based on rights, equality & the rule of law. In the first three years of the Revolution they went a long way toward doing so. Then came Robespierre, the Terror & unspeakable acts of barbarism. In a clear, dispassionate & fast-moving narrative, Ian Davidson shows how & why the Revolutionaries, in just five years, spiralled from the best of the Enlightenment to tyranny & the Terror. The book reminds us that the Revolution was both an inspiration of the finest principles of a new democracy & an awful warning of what can happen when idealism goes wrong.