Children of the Revolution: The French, 1799-1914

New Penguin History of France #2

by Robert Gildea

For those who lived in the wake of the French Revolution, from the storming of the Bastille to Napoleon’s final defeat, its aftermath left a profound wound that no subsequent king, emperor, or president could heal. Children of the Revolution follows the ensuing generations who repeatedly tried and failed to come up with a stable regime after the trauma of 1789. The process encouraged fresh and often murderous oppositions between those who were for, and those who were against, the Revolution’s values. Bearing the scars of their country’s bloody struggle, and its legacy of deeply divided loyalties, the French lived the long nineteenth century in the shadow of the revolutionary age. Despite the ghosts raised in this epic tale, Robert Gildea has written a richly engaging and provocative book. His is a strikingly unfamiliar France, a country with an often overwhelming gap between Paris and the provinces, a country torn apart by fratricidal hatreds and a tortured history of feminism, the site of political catastrophes and artistic triumphs, and a country that managed—despite a pervasive awareness of its own fall from grace—to fix itself squarely at the heart of modernity. Indeed, Gildea reveals how the collective recognition of the great costs of the Revolution galvanized the French to achieve consensus in a new republic and to integrate the tumultuous past into their sense of national identity. It was in this spirit that France’s young men went to the front in World War I with a powerful sense of national confidence and purpose.

Genres: History, France, Nonfiction, French Revolution, European History

576 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2008

About the author

Robert Nigel Gildea FBA FRHistS is Emeritus Professor of Modern History at the University of Oxford and is the author of several influential books on 20th century French history.

Reviews

[Diane · Rating 5 out of 5]

In-depth history of the politics and culture of France in the 19th century. The author demonstrates how France had to contend with both the legacy of the Revolution (and its Enlightenment antecedent) as well as a strong conservative faction that sought to protect the power of the traditional elites and the established Church. The author presents a very nuanced picture, and while the political sections of the book were largely the same as other histories of the period, the author presented a great deal of information about French culture during this period that was quite interesting.

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

Helpful, but Gildea has an odd sense of pacing his books. He delves into details that provide some helpful insights to the broader history that he covers, but then rushes through major events leaving the reader wondering what just happened. Not bad, but there is probably better out there.

[Daniel Kukwa · Rating 3 out of 5]

It would have been "great" instead of "good", had the author not bogged himself down with too many trifling (and rather dull) domestic details.

[Jacob Dickens · Rating 4 out of 5]

A clear and fascinating analysis of the French in the nineteenth century.

[Erfan Bayat · Rating 2 out of 5]

کتابی فوق‌العاده مهم و جامعه در باب صد و اندی سال از تاریخ فرانسه. نگارنده با ظرافت خاصی از بررسی کشمکش‌های سیاسی جمهوری‌خواهان و سلطنت‌طلبان برای به دست آوردن قدرت شروع می‌کند، به تغییرات و تحولات کلیسا و شکل‌گیری انقلاب بر نهاد مذهب می‌پردازد و از دریچه‌ی ادبیات و نگاه‌های شاعران و نویسندگان بزرگ فرانسه به تحلیل کوچک‌ترین و خصوصی‌ترین ابعاد زندگی فردی و جمعی انقلابیون وارد می‌شود.

اما ترجمه‌ی کتاب پر از ایراد، دشوار و گاها خواندن و درک آن ناممکن به نظر می‌رسد.

[Mshelton50 · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent history -- both political and social -- of France from the end of the French Revolution to the outbreak of the First World War. As the reviewer for the The Nation observed, Robert Gildea's book, while comprehensive, has an "eye for an individual example, anecdote or aphorism" that further enlightens the reader.

[Cristina Contilli]

Un saggio che prende in considerazione i cambiamenti culturali e sociali avvenuti in Francia dopo 3 diverse rivoluzioni, quella del 1789, quella del 1830 e quella del 1870... su google libri è disponibile un'ampia anteprima di questo libro e nella porzione disponibile si parla anche della dott. ssa Madeleine Pelletier nata nel 1874 e quindi figlia della terza rivoluzione che aveva conosciuto la Francia in 100 anni scarsi, una delle prime donne psichiatra nella Parigi di inizio '900, in un'epoca in cui c'erano in servizio sommando tutti gli ospedali parigini solo 19 donne medico...

[!Tæmbuŝu]

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Reviewed by Powell's Review-a-Day