Hugh Gough - The Terror In The French Revolution

Studies in European History

Studies in European History

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Hugh Gough 1998, 2010

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First edition 1998

Second edition published 2010 by

PALGRAVE MACMILLAN

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ISBN: 9780230201811 paperback

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References in the text within square brackets relate to items in the Bibliography.

The Studies in European History series offers a guide to developments in a field of history that has become increasingly specialised with the sheer volume of new research and literature now produced. Each book has three main objectives. The primary purpose is to offer an informed assessment of opinion on a key episode or theme in European history. Second, each title presents a distinct interpretation and conclusions from someone who is closely involved with current debates in the field. Third, it provides students and teachers with a succinct introduction to the topic, with the essential information necessary to understand it and the literature being discussed. Equipped with an annotated bibliography and other aids to study, each book provides an ideal starting point to explore important events and processes that have shaped Europes history to the present day.

Books in the series introduce students to historical approaches which in some cases are very new and which, in the normal course of things, would take many years to filter down to text-books. By presenting historys cutting edge, we hope that the series will demonstrate some of the excitement that historians, like scientists, feel as they work on the frontiers of their subject. The series also has an important contribution to make in publicising what historians are doing, and making it accessible to students and scholars in this and related disciplines.

J OHN B REUILLY

J ULIAN J ACKSON

P ETER H. W ILSON

The first edition of this book appeared over ten years ago, the same number of years that separated the fall of the Bastille from the seizure of power by Napoleon Bonaparte. A decade is a long time in history, as in politics, and interpretations of the terror have moved on. I have updated this text in the light of some of the work that has appeared since the first edition was published. To do this, I have cut the analysis of the early years of the revolution from two chapters to one and added new material on the terror itself. One new chapter provides a more detailed account of social and cultural policies, with the aim of providing a balanced view of the way in which the terror aimed to regenerate society while, at the same time, sending hundreds to the guillotine.