The Terror (English)

This bloody history of the French Revolution makes that major event accessible to the general reader, as David Andress focuses on the Reign of Terror--the collapse of order and the chaotic two-year score-settling in which tens of thousands of French citizens were killed, usually in public by guillotine. Andress blames what he calls the rigid thinking of the Jacobins, who had simply, they believed, removed an oppressive regime, yet who were blind to their own actions. Andress paints deep portraits of key personalities, including the leader of the Jacobins, Robespierre (later captured and guillotined), and Napoleon Bonaparte. He explains the issues involved, clarifies the various factions and groups, and includes helpful maps, charts, and timelines, as well as a glossary. The significance of the terror on the streets of Paris in the 1790s has long been argued by thinkers on the Left and Right--some seeing in it the seeds of 20th-century state terror, others seeing it as a warning against popular uprisings and mob rule, whether in the 1960s or in contemporary times. minimize