The French Revolution: A Document Collection

Cool book with lots of details

I'd like to thank Laura Mason for putting this book together. It was a great read & as a history student a book full of primary sources is a gold mine. Not only does this book bring the French Revolution to life but it provides a very personal look at the revolution.

This is a period of history which has always held my interest. Excellent.

Wonderful overview of the French Revolution! The wide variety of documents really gives the reader a deep and insightful view into the revolution!

Excellent copy, quickly delivered.

french

I had to use this book for my Intro to History class at a summer program, and it was a great help. The documents are from a wide variety of sources, presenting a balanced picture of the French Revolution from all angles: males, slaves, peasants, the King, women, and all the classes. The documents weave together into a fascinating narrative, and many were instrumental in writing my research paper on the Terror. Thank you for this book!

Mason and Rizzo's collection of primary sources is very well put-together. Because most French Revolution document collections are out of print, this is a very good, affordable collection appropriate for students and scholars. Mason and Rizzo cite their documents' sources, which I appreciate since it is easy for authors to simply avoid doing so. If you want a primary source collection for the French Revolution, this is the best one to start with because of its availability and its scholarly quality. Documents range from famous Robespierre,* Danton, and Saint-Just speeches, to the disturbing Law of 22 Prairial Year II,** to anonymously submitted petitions.If you are able to find them, there are other good primary source collections that have been published. I would still recommend Mason and Rizzo's first, thought. Such other options are:— F. M. Anderson's "The Constitution and Other Select Documents Illustrative of the History of France" (2nd ed.)— J. Hardman's "French Revolution Documents" (2 vols.)— H. M. Stephen's "Speeches of the Statesmen and Orators of the French Revolution, 1789–1795" (2 vols.)— R. W. Postgate's "Revolution from 1789 to 1906"— G. Pernoud and S. Flaissier's "The French Revolution"All of these were published or reprinted in the 1960s or before, and as such may be difficult to find.* Robespierre's February 5th, 1794 speech contains the famous lines, "If the motivating force of popular government in peacetime is virtue, the motivating force of popular government in revolution is both virtue and terror: virtue, without which terror is disastrous; terror, without which virtue is powerless."** Article 7 reads: "The penalty provided for all [the above-listed] offenses, the jurisdiction of which belongs to the revolutionary tribunal, is death.” Article 9 reads: "Every citizen has the right to seize conspirators and counter-revolutionaries and to arraign them before magistrates. He is required to denounce them when he knows of them."