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The Eve of the French Revolution
This is a pre-1923 historical reproduction that was curated for quality. Quality assurance was conducted on each of these books in an attempt to remove books with imperfections introduced by the digitization process. Though we have made best efforts - the books may have occasional errors that do not impede the reading experience. We believe this work is culturally important and have elected to bring the book back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide.
- GenresHistoryFrench Revolution
250 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1892
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
February 19, 2014
Nowadays I only read for pleasure. I can't say that reading this book was a pleasure but I am proud to have finished it . The writer dwells on the teachings of the great thinkers and philosophers of the time at great length. The prose is heavy , which is to be expected , considering the century it was written in. The only thinker that impressed me was Rousseau, despite his dogmatic views. The writer concludes that the French were/ are a great nation, their intentions aspirations were noble but necessary time and precautions were not taken to avoid the atrocities and the bloodshed. The nation was 'seething' and 'bubbling' .It did not lack the natural ability to bring about change in the right direction but wanting was the experience calmness and patience.
October 15, 2020
A good summary of 18th-century French society, the new ideas of the Enlightenment, and how both contributed to the French Revolution. Edward Lowell paints a generally balanced portrait of the Ancien Regime, describing the social classes, traditions, politics, economics, and culture while listing their strengths and weaknesses.
Lowell was an American WASP historian from the 19th century, with all the expected biases. He is generally favorable to the ideas of the Enlightenment, although, like most Anglo-Saxon observers of the French Revolution, he is by temperament a moderate Girondin and therefore horrified by its excesses.
To be sure, he has personal sympathy for France and tries to be fair. He refutes the myth that France was a poor, miserable country before 1789. In fact, it was the richest and happiest kingdom in Europe, if poorly led and poorly managed. Lowell has no sympathy for Louis XVI's vacillating and weak character. There was a need for reform, and for the suppression of some obsolete customs and some of the feudal laws. What comes out very clearly in Lowell's narrative is that the Revolution was in full swing decades before 1789. The Enlightenment had set many changes in motion that made the French Revolution almost inevitable. Even then, it would not have happened if France had had a strong king.
But the French Revolution itself is not his focus. Most interesting is his overview of the Enlightenment philosophers (Voltaire, Rousseau, Diderot, Montesquieu, and others). Although they usually fought with each other (and often contradicted themselves, especially Rousseau), their ideas spread like wildfire. They were explicitly anti-Catholic and anti-monarchy, yet the royal and religious censors did relatively little or nothing to suppress them (much less refute them) when they had everything in their power to do so. What is clear is that the French Revolution began in the ideas, and spread by books and pamphlets, nearly a century before the political upheaval in 1789.
Lowell's book was written in 1892, and therefore in a 19th-century style that readers today might find dry and difficult. I personally find the old style -- with its rich vocabulary, focused narrative, and logic -- to be refreshing when compared to so many more modern histories. Overall, "The Eve of the French Revolution" is very engaging, well-researched, and interesting -- a useful, if somewhat dated, contribution to the study of the causes of the French Revolution.
Lowell was an American WASP historian from the 19th century, with all the expected biases. He is generally favorable to the ideas of the Enlightenment, although, like most Anglo-Saxon observers of the French Revolution, he is by temperament a moderate Girondin and therefore horrified by its excesses.
To be sure, he has personal sympathy for France and tries to be fair. He refutes the myth that France was a poor, miserable country before 1789. In fact, it was the richest and happiest kingdom in Europe, if poorly led and poorly managed. Lowell has no sympathy for Louis XVI's vacillating and weak character. There was a need for reform, and for the suppression of some obsolete customs and some of the feudal laws. What comes out very clearly in Lowell's narrative is that the Revolution was in full swing decades before 1789. The Enlightenment had set many changes in motion that made the French Revolution almost inevitable. Even then, it would not have happened if France had had a strong king.
But the French Revolution itself is not his focus. Most interesting is his overview of the Enlightenment philosophers (Voltaire, Rousseau, Diderot, Montesquieu, and others). Although they usually fought with each other (and often contradicted themselves, especially Rousseau), their ideas spread like wildfire. They were explicitly anti-Catholic and anti-monarchy, yet the royal and religious censors did relatively little or nothing to suppress them (much less refute them) when they had everything in their power to do so. What is clear is that the French Revolution began in the ideas, and spread by books and pamphlets, nearly a century before the political upheaval in 1789.
Lowell's book was written in 1892, and therefore in a 19th-century style that readers today might find dry and difficult. I personally find the old style -- with its rich vocabulary, focused narrative, and logic -- to be refreshing when compared to so many more modern histories. Overall, "The Eve of the French Revolution" is very engaging, well-researched, and interesting -- a useful, if somewhat dated, contribution to the study of the causes of the French Revolution.
January 30, 2016
Jim Gottreich's sophomore World History course may have been my introduction to historical scholarship in high school. It wasn't that he was so demanding. It was, I think, because he was so inspiring.
Jim was himself a graduate student when he taught a year at Maine Township High School South in conservative Park Ridge, Illinois. As such, he appreciated and represented higher standards than those regularly demanded of underclasspersons. One such standard was frank honesty. Jim did not subscribe to any ideology idealizing the Western, or American, historical record. He was critical, and often quite amusing in so being. He also was principled, standing up repeatedly to the chair of the History Department, the reactionary Otto Kohler. As a result, and despite a student protest movement, his contract was not renewed--a common enough occurrence at South, affected many of my favorite teachers.
While I was able to get away with reading books of varying quality for the research papers he assigned, I was so intent on pleasing him and pursuing the topics he treated that I worked beyond necessity. This, a rather more respectable, albeit dated, history of the French revolution than some of the others I read represented one of my earlier forays into real scholarly literature.
Jim was himself a graduate student when he taught a year at Maine Township High School South in conservative Park Ridge, Illinois. As such, he appreciated and represented higher standards than those regularly demanded of underclasspersons. One such standard was frank honesty. Jim did not subscribe to any ideology idealizing the Western, or American, historical record. He was critical, and often quite amusing in so being. He also was principled, standing up repeatedly to the chair of the History Department, the reactionary Otto Kohler. As a result, and despite a student protest movement, his contract was not renewed--a common enough occurrence at South, affected many of my favorite teachers.
While I was able to get away with reading books of varying quality for the research papers he assigned, I was so intent on pleasing him and pursuing the topics he treated that I worked beyond necessity. This, a rather more respectable, albeit dated, history of the French revolution than some of the others I read represented one of my earlier forays into real scholarly literature.
November 19, 2013
This book was beyond the scope of what I was interested in. Didn't finish it.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews