THE FRENCH REVOLUTION: A Quick Immersion (Quick Immersions)

This Quick Immersion introduces readers to one of the most dramatic and influential events in world history,one that opened a door to the implementation of 'liberal revolutions' across the globe in the following two centuries. The narrative's main focus is the peculiar political dynamic -oscillating between an almost utopian optimism and a pessimistic distrust of other political actors-that propelled the French Revolutionaries from one pivotal crisis to the next. Smith follows the story from the arguments over fiscal reform in the 1770s and 1780s, where many of the seeds of mistrust were first planted, to the fall of Robespierre and the dismantling of emergency government in 1794-1795.