Book Description

The decade between 1789 and 1799 bore witness to a complex succession of rapid-fire and cataclysmic events. These events and the people involved in them changed not only the entire course of French history, but had enormous impact on the modern world. Despite the influence of the revolutionary decade in France and the enduring interest in it, scholars and students have had no single cohesive and easily accessible source of basic fact, interpretation, and related reading. In the Historical Dictionary of the French Revolution, 1789-1799, Samuel F. Scott and Barry Rothaus gather together, for the first time in English, a vast amount of historical information through interpretive analyses covering the major events and personalities connected with the French Revolutionary period. Ninety-six historians of the French Revolution, many of international renown, have contributed over five hundred essays to this comprehensive handbook. No important element of the history is omitted; every major event, individual, constitutional development, political organization, committee, institution, and cultural aspect of the French Revolutionary decade is examined and analyzed. A bibliography immediately following each article places the most germane sources at the fingertips of scholars and students who wish to conduct further studies of specific topics. A comprehensive index and cross references for each entry allow the reader to obtain a well-rounded perspective of any subject. The volume concludes with a detailed chronology of the 1789-1799 period. The Historical Dictionary of the French Revolution, 1789-1799 is the most current and exhaustive guide to the study of the French Revolution in English, and possibly in any language. As a readily accessible source of essential and accurate data and as a springboard for deeper study, it will prove invaluable to French Revolution specialists and students alike and should be part of every educational library.