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The French Revolution

RedRedRose

RedRedRose

Well-Known Member
Looking for recommendations: books, essays and other materials related to the French Revolution.

Any talking points, or particular areas of interest are also gratefully received.
 
Count Cuckula said:
The Great French Revolution by Peter Kropotkin

The Great French Revolution by Peter Kropotkin - AbeBooks

Great French Revolution 1789-1793 by Peter Kropotkin and a great selection of related books, art and collectibles available now at AbeBooks.co.uk.
www.abebooks.co.uk
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I see libcom have a pdf copy, but the original was split into two volumes, so, I'm not sure if their offering is a complete volume.

Count Cuckula said:
If I were you I'd have a look at this lot: Enragés - Wikipedia
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The radical wing of the Sans-Culottes movement. My intro book mentions very little of them other than their 'leadership'.

Books from: Daniel Guerin, Jean Juares, Albert Soboul will hopefully shed more light.
 
Have a look on archive.org which will have a load of material for both download and borrowing. But if you're able to be more specific about which aspect of the revolution or if you're just looking for a way into it that would help as the literature on the revolution is so vast
 
RedRedRose said:
I see libcom have a pdf copy, but the original was split into two volumes, so, I'm not sure if their offering is a complete volume.


The radical wing of the Sans-Culottes movement. My intro book mentions very little of them other than their 'leadership'.

Books from: Daniel Guerin, Jean Juares, Albert Soboul will hopefully shed more light.
Click to expand...
Yes the Libcom library is a great resource. It should be the complete volume but I don't know.
 
Thanks. Initially, I'm looking at introductory books. I'm reading Eric Hazan's 'A People's History of the French Revolution' after having finished something by Peter Jones.

Something more narrative focused and dealing with the different tendencies would be good.
 
RedRedRose said:
Something more narrative focused and dealing with the different tendencies would be good.
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If you're into podcasts, Mike Duncan's Revolutions series has (counts) 59 episodes worth.
It's a lot of listening, but if you regularly have listening time it'll go by in a flash.
Good background and then a full telling of history up to Napoleon's (first) defeat.

Episode index here: Revolutions Podcast

But you can subscribe in your podcast app of choice and start with episode 3.1 (14th July 2014)

He's an excellent broadcaster. Dry wit and ties everything together in a narrative style.
Also goes into the historiography of it all, so you get multiple angles.
 
mojo pixy said:
Marxists.org has quite an archive of Essays etc, Biographies, and (translated) contemporaneous documents.
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I'm glad you mentioned this, as I'm not sure what is relevant, or any good.

Ernest Belfort Bax - Sketches of the French Revolution
Ernest Belfort Bax - Jean-Paul Marat; The People's Friend
Ernest Belfort Bax - Gracchus Babeuf and the Conspiracy of the Equals
Jean Jaures - Socialist History of the French Revolution
George Rude - Interpretations of the French Revolution

Should I also seek out Marx's Eighteenth Brumaire?
 
RedRedRose said:
I'm glad you mentioned this, as I'm not sure what is relevant, or any good.

Ernest Belfort Bax - Sketches of the French Revolution
Ernest Belfort Bax - Jean-Paul Marat; The People's Friend
Ernest Belfort Bax - Gracchus Babeuf and the Conspiracy of the Equals
Jean Jaures - Socialist History of the French Revolution
George Rude - Interpretations of the French Revolution

Should I also seek out Marx's Eighteenth Brumaire?
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You haven't said yet why you're doing this research, so only you can know how relevant anything is in that archive (which is extensive!) For what it's worth, a translation of 18 Brumaire is here.
 
mojo pixy said:
You haven't said yet why you're doing this research
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I teach at a high school overseas, and I need to expand my teaching portfolio from macro-level to thematic. Therefore, I have one eye on my knowledge, another on pooling various different sources together.

In terms of leftist and radical critiques, I will read them, just because :p
 
I noticed this thread as I am sat waiting for Le Concert de Paris. It is le quatorze Juillet, aujourd`hui. Today is bastille day. If you havent ever seen it, it is a fantastic open air classical music concert in front of the Eiffel Tower, with a huge fireworks display. You can watch it online aussi. Live ce soir! I know it is not totally to do with your thread, but because of what today is, it is a little.
 
Crispy said:
If you're into podcasts, Mike Duncan's Revolutions series has (counts) 59 episodes worth.
It's a lot of listening, but if you regularly have listening time it'll go by in a flash.
Good background and then a full telling of history up to Napoleon's (first) defeat.

Episode index here: Revolutions Podcast

But you can subscribe in your podcast app of choice and start with episode 3.1 (14th July 2014)

He's an excellent broadcaster. Dry wit and ties everything together in a narrative style.
Also goes into the historiography of it all, so you get multiple angles.
Click to expand...
Came here to suggest this. The Haitian and Mexican Revolution are also outstanding. He's doing the Russian one and this will be the final one.
 
BristolEcho said:
Came here to suggest this. The Haitian and Mexican Revolution are also outstanding. He's doing the Russian one and this will be the final one.
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He'll still be at it a while. 60 episodes in and the Tsar is still alive :D
 
Crispy said:
He'll still be at it a while. 60 episodes in and the Tsar is still alive :D
Click to expand...

Ha not surprised. :)

I listened to the first half then he had to have a long break and I've been listening to audio books. Might wait until he finishes and binge it from the start again. I will get round to his books at some point.
 
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