France Revolution

When the leaders of the French Revolution executed Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette in 1793, they sent a chilling message to the hereditary ruling orders in Europe. Believing that monarchy anywhere presented a threat to democratic rule in France, the leaders of the revolution declared war on European aristocracies, including those of Great Britain. For more than 20 years thereafter, France and England waged a protracted war that ended in British victory.

The French Revolution was a turbulent period that lasted several years, and one of the most famous events of the entire revolution came near the beginning with the Tennis Court Oath. By July of 1788, King Louis XVI agreed to call the Estates-General, a large, traditional legislative body, for the first time since 1614. The country's finances, already quite tenuous, reached a crisis stage in August 1788 as France faced bankruptcy.

Frankreich, am Vorabend der Französischen Revolution. Die Nationalversammlung steht vor der Entscheidung um Krieg oder Frieden. Verschiedene Mächte kämpfen um Einfluss und schließlich kommt es zu der unvermeidlichen Kriegserklärung aus Paris. In dieser schicksalsgeladenen Nacht verfasst der junge Franzose Claude Rouget de Lisle ein Musikstück, das ungeahnte Tragkraft entfalten soll...

What was it like to live through one of the most transformational periods in world history? In The Glory and the Sorrow, eminent historian Timothy Tackett answers this question through a masterful recreation of the world of Adrien Colson, a minor lawyer who lived in Paris at the end of the Old Regime and during the first eight years of the French Revolution. Based on over a thousand letters written by Colson, this book vividly narrates everyday life for an "ordinary citizen" during extraordinary times, as well as the life of a neighborhood on a small street in central Paris.

Anatole France creo una de las grandes novelas, que sobre el fondo de los anos posteriores a la Revolucion Francesa y el desarrollo del Terror, muestra un punto de vista diferente sobre ese hecho historico. El protagonista de la obra, el pintor Evaristo Gamelin, revolucionario ferviente, se ven envuelto en los torbellinos de los hechos y acaba sacrificando en vano su vida.