Contesting the French Revolution

Few events in history have generated as much scholarly work as the French Revolution, and lively and often emotional debates about is origins and meaning continue to this day. Contesting the French Revolution presents an overview of what led up to this pivotal event, the turning points that shaped it, and its far–reaching effects, as well as examining the most significant historiographical debates about this period. Were the events of 1789 a social revolution or a political accident? Did they mark the rise of industrial capitalism or the birth of modern democracy? Was the Reign of Terror a response to foreign war and domestic resistance or the product of Jacobin ideology? Was Napoleon Bonaparte an heir to the ideals of 1789 or a betrayer of the Revolution? In this impressive evaluation of La Révolution Paul Hanson offers an engaging analysis of these debates, showing us how historical interpretation of the French Revolution has been influenced by the changing political and social currents of the last 200 years – from the Russian Revolution to the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Acknowledgements. Chronology. Introduction. 1. Origins: Inevitable Revolution or Resolvable Crisis? 2. 1789. 3. The Declaration of Rights and the Abolition of Feudalism. 4. Constitutional Monarchy. 5. The Republic. 6. Regeneration and Terror. 7. Thermidor and the Directory. 8. Napoleon: Heir to the Revolution? 9. Revolutionary Violence. 10. Legacy of the Revolution. Bibliography. Index.

Paul Hanson is Professor of History at Butler University in Indianapolis. He has taught courses on French history, European history, and Chinese history, and has published numerous books and articles examining the French Revolution, including The Jacobin Republic under Fire, Provincial Politics in the French Revolution and Historical Dictionary of the French Revolution .

"This book offers the best and most comprehensive narrative of the French Revolution published in decades. In a brief synthesis, Paul Hanson presents a riveting account and a fascinating exploration of the scholarly debates. Most impressive is Hanson′s knowledge of all the fields of research and his achievement in bringing them together in a highly readable book." (European History Quarterly, 2011) "The historiography of the French Revolution is notoriously voluminous. Paul Hanson is one of very few people who can be said to have mastered it.” ( Informaworld.com , January 2011) "Appropriately for a book centred on the notion of debate, Hanson includes an innovative interactive element: at the end of the Acknowledgements he provides an email address to which readers are invited to send ‘comments, suggestions, and criticisms′ (p. ix). I, for one, intend to take up the invitation in order to congratulate him on a job well done." (French Studies, December 2010) "Recommended [for] Graduate students [and] faculty." ( CHOICE , February 2010) Designed as an introduction both to the Revolution and to the historical controversies that surround it, Contesting the French Revolution is an assured, erudite survey of recent scholarship by an accomplished historian of the Revolution. ( H–France, April 2010)