Doyle - The Oxford History of the French Revolution

THE OXFORD HISTORY OF THE
French Revolution

THE OXFORD HISTORY OF THE

Second Edition

William Doyle

Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP

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William Doyle 2002

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First published 2002

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ISBN 019925298X

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From Number Six

Praise for The Oxford History of the French Revolution:

a wonderfully lucid, authoritative and balanced history, ornamented with all the scholarly apparatus one would expect from an Oxford history.

Linda Colley, London Review of Books

The most comprehensive all-in-one history of the Revolution supremely clear and brimming with scholarly detail.

Independent

a tour de force of historical scholarship and a pleasure to read.

Mail on Sunday

A work of breathtaking range masterfully written.

Observer

An outstanding model of clarity and informed scholarship.

Simon Schama, New Republic

Excellent narrative history.

Spectator

An excellent historical survey.

Sunday Times

A lucid, beautifully structured narrative of the Revolution For a sober, highly informative account of the causes, course and consequences of the Revolution no enquiring mind could do better than turn to Professor Doyle.

Sydney Review

Doyles book, in its readability, its clarity and its balance, is certainly the best of the general studies of the Revolution that have recently appeared; it will appeal both to the general reader and to the historian.

Times Higher Education Supplement

No preface seemed necessary when this book first appeared. That was perhaps a mistake. Little in history is self-evident, much less the intentions of those who attempt to write it. A more explicit statement of what I was trying, and not trying, to achieve might have given readers a better idea of what to expectfor better or worse. A second edition provides the opportunity to rectify the omission, and to explain any changes now incorporated.

It is a history of the French Revolution and not simply of the Revolution in France. Seldom has an upheaval in one country had such widespread repercussions beyond its borders; and the Revolution in turn was deeply affected by how foreigners reacted to it. The wider dimension therefore appeared to me an essential part of the story. Written to appear for the bicentenary of the Revolution in 1989, as an Oxford History the book was conceived as a narrative for general readers rather than the student textbook it has nevertheless largely become. In deference to that fate, however, I have now expanded the short bibliography of the first edition into a wider introduction to the historiography of the subjectalthough it remains an appendix which less utilitarian readers can bypass as they prefer. Otherwise I have taken the opportunity to rectify errors, update information where necessary, and occasionally expand on topics which perhaps received less emphasis than they deserved in the first edition. The general shape and interpretation, however, remain much as they were. The story still ends in 1802, when Napoleons power was secure, reflecting my belief that the safest definition of the Revolution is as a series of tumultuous events and uncertainties which only he found the key to terminating. His own tenure of power brought about a new series, but that forms a different (though related) story. Finally, I have not wavered from my judgement that the Revolution was a tragedy. Some readers have interpreted this as a hostile verdict. But to call something tragic is not necessarily to condemn it. It is to lament wasted promise. There are still few periods in history when so many benevolent intentions led to so much unintended chaos and destruction, vitiating into the bargain all later attempts to realize them. Napoleon, once again, saw the fruitlessness of condemning the at the very moment when he was preparing to dethrone the last ruling Bourbon king, all reaction in speaking of the Revolution. No man could oppose it. Blame lies neither with those who perished nor with those who have survived. There was no individual force capable of changing its elements or of preventing events which arose from the nature of things and from circumstances. The tragedy is that of all the human beings caught up in such an inexorable process.

W.D.

Bath, 2002

Le mal de changer est-il toujours moins grand que le mal de souffrir? Montesquieu, De lesprit des lois, bk. xxix, ch. xviii

La Rvolution, en dpit de toutes ses horreurs, nen avait pas moins t la vraie cause de la rgnration de nos moeurs.

Napoleon (Las Cases, Mmorial de Saint-Hlne, 27 octobre 1816)

Progress is not an illusion, it happens, but it is slow and invariably disappointing.

George Orwell, Charles Dickens (1939), in Collected Essays (1961), 47

THE king of France needed no coronation. He reigned by the grace of God from the moment his predecessor breathed his last, and a coronation was purely customary. So the argument was heard, even in the highest circles, that the elaborate consecration of Louis XVI, arranged for 11 June 1775 in the traditional setting of Rheims cathedral, was a waste of public money. A month beforehand, the countryside around Paris, and many districts of the city, had been shaken by rioting against high flour and bread prices. The disturbances led to talk of postponing the ceremony, and the approaches to Rheims were ringed with precautionary troops. And far fewer people than expected made the journey to the capital of Champagne to witness the historic spectacle. Innkeepers complained of unlet rooms, and caterers of wasted supplies. But when, that brilliant morning, the cathedral doors were flung open to reveal the young monarch crowned and enthroned in glory, invested with the sceptre of Charlemagne and anointed with the holy oil of Clovis, men broke down and wept despite themselves.