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Citizens: A Chronicle of the French Revolution Paperback – March 17, 1990

by Simon Schama (Author)

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Citizens: A Chronicle of the French Revolution
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In this New York Times bestseller, award-winning author Simon Schama presents an ebullient country, vital and inventive, infatuated with novelty and technology--a strikingly fresh view of Louis XVI's France. One of the great landmarks of modern history publishing, Citizens: A Chronicle of the French Revolution is the most authoritative social, cultural, and narrative history of the French Revolution ever produced.

Print length

976 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Vintage
Publication date

March 17, 1990
Dimensions

6.1 x 1.6 x 9.1 inches
ISBN-10

0679726101
ISBN-13

978-0679726104
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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In what PW called a "sprawling, provocative, sometimes infuriating chronicle that stands much conventional wisdom on its head," Schama argues that the Revolution did not produce a "patriotic culture of citizenship" but was preceded by one.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"Dazzling...stimulating...This is no ordinary book...Schama does not merely write brilliantly about people, about events, about the abuse of rhetoric, and about festivals and executions. He also chronicle with a dramatic burst of poetic imagination.... The virtues of this book [lie] in the coruscating brilliance of dazzling display of erudition and intelligence ... His chronicle is, after all, a stunningly virtuoso performance." -- Lawrence Stone, The New Republic

"One of The Best Books Of The Decade." -- Time

"Monumental...a delight to read...Lively descriptions of major events, colorful cameos of leading characters (and obscure ones too), bring them to life here as no other general work has done....Above all, Mr. Schama tells a story, and he tells it well." -- The New York Times Book Review

"Citizens, like the great 19th-century narratives it emulates, makes entertainment and erudition work hand in hand....As no other recent historian of the revolution, Schama brings to life the excitement -- and harrowing terror -- of an epochal human event." -- Newsweek

"A fresh and elegant narrative...A brilliantly readable and beautifully illustrated account." -- Washington Post Book World

"We are in the hands of a master storyteller...Vivid, dramatic, thought-provoking...Schama's portrait of the revolution is often surprising...His splendid recounting convinces us that much of what we thought we knew is wrong." -- Time

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Vintage; Reprint edition (March 17, 1990)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 976 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0679726101
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0679726104
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 3.42 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.1 x 1.6 x 9.1 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #217,936 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #58 in Scotland History
- #276 in French History (Books)
- #5,173 in World History (Books)

Customer Reviews:
4.4 644 ratings

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Simon Schama

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Simon Schama is a professor of art history and history at Columbia University, and is the author of numerous award-winning books; his most recent history, Rough Crossings, won the National Book Critics Circle Award for nonfiction. He is a cultural essayist for the New Yorker and has written and presented more than thirty documentaries for the BBC, PBS, and the History Channel, including The Power of Art, which won the 2007 International Emmy for Best Arts Programming.

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644 global ratings

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J. Weissberg

Unlike No Other!

Reviewed in the United States on February 25, 2022

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I am a history teacher and constantly reading books about world events. This book is unique because it gives the reader intimate details about the people involved. It does not read like your typical history book. It is not a dry list of names, dates, and events. For that, all you need is to Google “timeline of the French Revolution.” This book is special because the author did a tremendous amount of primary source research. One example is his inclusion of a sarcastic joke that Talleyrand told to his friends. The book reads like a novel. Some people are into that, some are not. If you take it slow and read for enjoyment and not for just pure information eventually you’ll see what a gem this book is. Just reading a few pages a day is something I look forward to as a little treat. I’m halfway through and don’t want it to end. I wish more history books were written like this.

18 people found this helpful

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Robin C. Smith

Amazing and gripping book

Reviewed in the United States on March 27, 2022

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This is one of the top non-fiction history books I have read, and I have read a lot of them. Marvelous and witty writing where Schama brilliantly paints a wonderful portrait of the intellectual currents that produced the revolutionaries and how it went so wrong from such a hopeful beginning. There are many lessons here that we should learn from in our current polarized times. The author display a profound knowledge of the people and the era. Congratulations to him on his achievement. This was a book I have been meaning to read since it was first published and only now over 30 years later have I actually got around to doing so.

3 people found this helpful

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Steven M Hug

Objective review of the French Revolution

Reviewed in the United States on July 20, 2012

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A huge quantity of research must have been done for this book. This book and Henry Kissinger's books offer excellent opportunity for the reader to improve vocabulary. Schama's writing lacks beauty, as found in, for example, the Iliad and parts of the Bible. But his use of mild cynicism makes for interesting reading. I had to read some sentences twice or more, given that often long qualifiers are inserted mid sentence, and given that his run-on style includes liberal use of complexity.

An easier book to read, because it uses a common writing style, is Christopher Hibbert's The Days of The French Revolution. Hibbert's book also provides more detail and a more comprehensible explanation of many facts, including a good description of the political storm surrounding the condemnation to the guillotine of the Revolutions leaders such as the Girondins, Desmoulins, Danton, St Just, and Rosbespierre. Hibbert's book, unlike Schama's, provides the reasons why Fouquier-Tinville was depicted (accurately) as a horrendous villan in Baroness Orczy's wonderful book and play, The Scharlet Pimpernel.

A few things apparent are: (1) The Revolution was driven by fear and terror, and (2) humankind, or at lease French humankind, was ready and even eager to send neighbors and associates to the guillotine. Unlike other historians, Schama does not try to gloss over the brutallity, nor does he emphasize it. Schama offers possible explanations for why The Terror happened, but I think he fails. It was almost as if a collective insanity overtook the country, an insanity that craved relief from boredom by feeding on blood and fear.

Of course the spoken targets were the rich, the nobility, and the clergy. But in the end it could not be confined to these groups, but became anybody who remotely seemed like a political opponent. As early as March, 1793 Pierre Vergniaud, who himself eventually went to the guillotine, offered to the tribune this terrible prophecy: "So, citizens, it must be feared that the Revolution, like Saturn, successively devouring its children, will engender, finally, only despostism with the calamities that accompany it". Despotism indeed was the fruit of the Revolution. But it was not Saturn that did the devouring, but the children of Saturn.

In many ways the French Revolution and, for that matter, the monarchy of King Louis XVI, preceeded the social engineering advocated by Lenin and Marx. A social safety net, wage and price controls, and taxation of products, land and incomes, were halmarks of the Revolution. Many of these reforms were later abandoned out of necessity because they caused shortages and economic stagnation.

A primary component of the Revolution, which sought "liberty, justice, and fraternity", was de-Christianization of France. A lesson Schama's and Hibbert's books provide is that when men and women seek social reform by depending on "reason" absent faith in God, then the result of that reform will more often be despotism.

A question that comes to mind: The story of the French Revolution is one of the most terrible episodes in modern history, partly because it was promulgated primarily by the common people rather than an elite leadership such as happened in Germany, Russia, and China. So why has Hollywood not made movies about the Revolution?

Even though the guillotine was abandoned in 1795, the fear lasted for several decades, and likely prevented resistence to the massive military conscription program instituted by Napoleon
Bonapart 20 years later.

17 people found this helpful

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M. Sullivan

Excellent Book

Reviewed in the United States on March 25, 2024

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Great book..I highly recommend reading it!

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L. Burgoyne

Why a young adult should read this

Reviewed in the United States on November 2, 2018

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Why four stars? It has been long recognised as a classic and I am surprised to see it weakly reviewed on Amazon. It rates its four stars.
It is now old, (1989 I think) but it was written by an extremely young historian who has since become almost disgustingly successful. So If you want to know how “success is done” in literature and the media you would be very well advised to read it as a starter. But DON’T treat it like a worthy text book. It is meant to read very swiftly, and you would be advised to do this. It is also rather long, and a fast read is a good way to take it all in.
Why should a young person read this? Because this is the way history should be presented to the layman and it should be read at great pace. Don’t pore over this book, shamelessly burn your way through it at a far higher pace than you would read a text book on the French revolution. If you are doing a history-course for grades, you can go back to pick-and-choose later.
What was the high point for me? Definitely it was the messy death of Robespierre. I rather enjoy disgustingly sanctimonious murderers getting their well-deserved end. Yucky but satisfying.
What character stood out? For me it was Talleyrand. (The highly irreligious bishop of Autun). An infinitely devious and cunning man but for all that; rather human.

46 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

DaveS

Absolutely brilliant

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 1, 2024

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Initially I thought that there was too much detail, but the more I read the more I appreciated the detail and nuance on the links.
If you know nothing or think you know a lot about the French revolution, you will be further informed by this excellent book.

Spidy S.

Tragic that it happened with a such a punitive hypocrisy and zeal

Reviewed in India on October 15, 2023

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joe

What essentially happened

Reviewed in Canada on February 19, 2018

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There are many books on the French Revolution, finding a good one is much more difficult. I looked at dozens of books before I came to this one. I find researching the French Revolution difficult due to its modern perception. Many books on the subject I find to be bias and not really well researched. The bias comes from the publics view of this subject in history. The French Revolution gave rise to Democracy, human rights and so on. Since these are things were take for granted and at face value, we are taught since high school that the Revolution was a source for good in the world and that anything in history that does not lead to a tolerant, democratic society is wrong. This is simplistic and not academic thinking. Explaining the revolution as the big bad upper class oppressing the lower ones, superstition vs reason ad so fourth is a very Marxist and simplistic view. This is why I chose this book and was very pleased. The author made no suggestions of the Revolution as being any better, force of good or progressive in history, he presents it as ‘what essentially happened’. Moreover I was very surprised, as he looked at The Ancient Regime, not as a backward, intolerant and evil in nature but more modern than I could understand. For example, most of the nobility wanted noble titles to be earned through merit not by inheritance, they wanted in creased taxation as they were the richest. Most wanted a separate legal system and to abolish the guilds. Many even wanted a constitution! What is presented is that the Ancient Regime was in fact far from revolution and more on the cusp of change. The author actually presents the revolution not as the little guy fighting the big bad 1%, but as a hijacking by radicals. That once things were set in motion, the most radical elements of society took over the revolution. This was a great book that is extremely well researched and argued. The author makes you rethink what the Revolution was about and why it happened, not what you should believe.

6 people found this helpful

Colin Chetwood

French Revolution

Reviewed in France on July 13, 2015

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Totally absorbing account of French peoples life at the time of Louis xv1 and the revolution period. In very full detail

Rowland Nelken

Rocks and Hard Places - Paradise Visions turn to Hell

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 2, 2009

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The French Revolution was many things. Simon Schama is aware that, even in 875 pages, only some of those things can be told. This book focuses on individuals and their personal and political development. For all the variety of background of the main revolutionary players, there are some common threads.

Popular as well as academic culture had, in the 18th century, been promoting an idealised 'natural' way of life; the antithesis of the stilted rituals and dress of the Court at Versailles. Schama makes much of the enormous influence of Rousseau. Those revolutionaries with any education (most of them; the revolution was largely an aristocratic movement), had been taught to revere the great ideals of the Roman Republic. Many had also seen service in the American War of Independence. The French motivation for involvement may have focused on trouncing the old British enemy. Fighting for Republican ideals only to return to the Divine monarchy that was Louis XVI's France seemed like unfinished business.

Schama deals in depth with the mixed personality of the King. A reforming king, interested in the sciences, happy to abolish oppressive feudal practices, he was, nevertheless, a prisoner of his role. His coronation had acted out his Divine appointment. This mixture of reason and ancient superstition made him weak in practice. Time and again he would make quasi democratic concessions, only to renege later.

A picture emerges of a society so ill at ease with itself, that it feels it needs a complete cleansing and makeover. In practice that can only be done with a complete extinction of the population. For all the destruction of privelege, custom and people, Schama points out just how much of the old France survived for centuries. The Catholic Church has withered, but is still intact. Some great noble estates continue to be owned by the great nobility.

This book is a terrific introduction to a complex and confusing series of terrible events. It has inspired this reader to want to discover more.

7 people found this helpful

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