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brannigan's review against another edition
3.0
A thorough review of the events of the French Revolution, from a historical Marxist (class-centric) perspective. Part One is particularly interesting, giving a wide-spectrum summary of the European world as it looked just before the events of 1789 - highlighting trends in European philosophy, economics, social structures and foreign policy that contributed to the upheaval that was the Revolution.
Unfortunately though, much of Lefebvre's work went over my head as the meat of the book is dry and dense. I don't know much about the French Revolution and I've had difficulty finding a popular introduction to this time period. I hoped this would be the introduction I've been looking for, but sadly not. It's frustrating how so many books on the FR assume the reader has decent prior knowledge. The search continues.
Unfortunately though, much of Lefebvre's work went over my head as the meat of the book is dry and dense. I don't know much about the French Revolution and I've had difficulty finding a popular introduction to this time period. I hoped this would be the introduction I've been looking for, but sadly not. It's frustrating how so many books on the FR assume the reader has decent prior knowledge. The search continues.
inept_scholar's review against another edition
4.0
The first volume on the French Revolution by Georges Lefebvre is a great introduction to one of the most well-known events in European and world history. In fact, I thought that this book would serve as an excellent textbook to study and examine the details of the Revolution. Particularly the initial chapters are a brilliant showcase of how this event could be broken down as one of class conflicts and aspirations. However, towards the end, the book does gets bogged down by numerous factual details that sometimes fail to present an ignorant reader with a more cohesive understanding of the Revolution. It certainly could have helped if the Routledge edition had carried some helpful maps and useful citations for the reader through which they could better understand the motivation of various political groups and people like Robespierre, Marat, Feuillents, Girondins, and even Mme Roland. At times, the details overwhelm you so much, that you feel a slight disinterest in the significant political events that occurred from 1789 to 1793. This however is not the case with EP Thompson's Making of the Working Class which makes you care of each and every figure they way one would emphatize with a literary character (though the Penguin edition also lacks in useful citations making the book look cumbersome which it is definitely not!). The wholehearted way Thompson embraces 'history from below' is starkly different to the dry and slightly disdainful tone of Lefebvre. But even then, Lefebvre work is a great textbook and introduction to French Revolution. And it is indeed a bit sad that students (and even teachers) would really on Arvind Sinha's so utterly boring book to grasp the basics of modern European histories especially when such excellent options are available for study!
nicholasbobbitt1997's review
4.0
This work played a major role in my longest paper to date. Lefebvre writes well, the translation works well, and he clearly did quite a lot of research on this.
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