Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #20102 in Books
• Published on: 2004-08-05
• Binding: Paperback
• 848 pages

Synopsis
The most authoritative social, cultural and narrative history of the French Revolution, and one of the great landmarks of modern history publishing. "Monumental...provocative and stylish, Simon Schama's account of the first few years of the great Revolution in France, and of the decades that led up to it, is thoughtful, informed and profoundly revisionist" - Eugen Weber, "The New York Times" Book Review.

Customer Reviews

Lacking
Schama believes that the Revolution ended with the end of the Terror. This is simply not true and a marker for the sort of angle he has taken on the matter. Whilst undeniably well written, Schama offers little or no explanation for why events took place. How he manages to get away with this is a miracle, given the wealth of debate on the matter. Engaging primary anecdotes aside, that do indeed 'bring characters to life', there is little here of worth.

Anger an historian you know by gushing about how you love his lyrical prose, but don't use this to write an essay. There are works which go much deeper in markedly fewer pages.

I'm no historian but.....
.......I really enjoyed this book. I didn't know anything about the French revolution either and feel I have a much better undestanding - although in no great detail.
If you like your reading a bit more serious and factual every now and again this should be a sreious contender for your next read. Just don't get annoyed by some of the awful and often repeated grammatical errors.

Not a holiday read...
I'm an avid devourer of history when on vacation, and bought Schama's Citizens looking forward to a book along the lines of Beevor's excellent Stalingrad or Johnson's History of the American People. I would not say I was disappointed - Schama takes an iconoclastic and interesting line on the various phases of the revolution - but this is not an easy read, not is it unputdownable. I'm sure those factors were not top of Schama's list (!) but buy it if you want a serious and readable version of the events of 1795-1803, but don't expect to be gripped by it. One minor gripe - does not cover Napoleon at all!