The French Revolution and Napoleon: Crucible of the Modern World

by Lynn Hunt, Jack R. Censer

Lynn Hunt and Jack R. Censer's The French Revolution and Napoleon provides a globally-oriented narrative history of events from 1789 until the fall of Napoleon. It emphasizes the global origins and consequences of the French Revolution and explains why it is the formative event for modern politics.

The book integrates global competition, fiscal crisis, slavery and the beginnings of nationalism with the more traditional emphases on human rights and constitutions, terror and violence, and the rise of authoritarianism. This global approach then enables the authors two world-renowned scholars in the field to clearly illustrate how the French Revolution and Napoleonic Empire changed all the political givens for Europe, the Americas, North Africa and parts of Asia as well.

Including numerous illustrations and maps, further reading lists, timelines and primary source document extracts for analysis in each chapter, this book is essential reading for all students of modern European history who want to understand the French Revolution and Napoleonic Empire in a truly global context.

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Genres: History, France, Read For School

256 pages, Hardcover

First published November 2, 2017

About the author

Lynn Avery Hunt is the Eugen Weber Professor of Modern European History at the University of California, Los Angeles. Her area of expertise is the French Revolution, but she is also well known for her work in European cultural history on such topics as gender. Her 2007 work, Inventing Human Rights, has been heralded as the most comprehensive analysis of the history of human rights. She served as president of the American Historical Association in 2002.

Reviews

[Derrick Brousseau]

Very readable for an average audience. Captivating narrative without sacrificing historical authenticity. The authors attempt to place the Revolution and Napoleonic Wars in a global context and I would say they mostly succeed, but it read a lot like “oh, and here’s a little bit of details from outside our main event… okay back to the main thing.”

Good book, I enjoyed reading it.

[Romy Voeten]

Gedetailleerd verhaal met de achtergrond van de Franse Revolutie

[Miles Ogden-Powers]

A good and compelling history, if not a bit dry at parts. Assigned for a college course.

[Adam Windsor]

A solid introductory text to the period it covers, though it's not going to satisfy those who want an in-depth analysis of the major figures of the revolutionary period, nor those with a military history bent. This is very much a big picture, big politics kind of text. If that's what you're looking for, though, it's certainly a good place to start, with some interesting discussion about how the revolutionary leaders justified The Terror, and how Bonaparte's regime shaped society both then and now.

[Gerald H]

This is a wonderful book. In 238 pages it gives a very concise history of the French Revolution and Nap[olean. It is packed with events and people
It details the impact of the Revolution on France and the world. Ir shows the brilliance of Napolean but also his overreach and fall. It also shows the complexity of revolution and the excesses it led to including the violence it employed to try to make the revolution work.

[Charlie Ye]

While the French Revolution and the Napoleonic era undeniably shaped the course of global history, I’m not entirely sold on the author's argument that global factors were the primary catalyst for the revolution itself. Personally, I believe that the specific, intricate domestic complexities of France and Europe were the true drivers behind the outbreak of the revolution and the multifaceted events that followed.

[Jovanna]

Read for 19th Century Europe class. No.

[haryii]

good intro

[Ashley Thijssing]

Lynn Hunt, the historian you are 🙏

[Nick Jenks]

The French are tapped