Books on the French Revolution

[Tim Finnegan]

So, I have to write an essay about the significance of the bourgoisie in the French Revolution to some schools of historiographical thought (which I'm taking to mean Marxist and Marxist-influenced historiography). I think that I have a firm enough grasp on the topic for this to be fairly straightforward, but I could use a few good sources from a Marxist or quasi-Marxist perspective to flesh things out for me (not to mention beefing up the bibliography). Any suggestions?

[Per Levy]

i havnt read one of them, but i heard books from Albert Soboul about french revolution are very good works on that topic. he was a communist as well.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Soboul


English editions

This list is by year of first English edition publication. Original publisher is in parentheses, followed by most current publisher and ISBN:


1964: The Parisian Sans-Culottes and the French Revolution, 1793-4 – (Clarendon Press) Greenwood Books: ISBN 0-313-20913-8 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/0313209138).
1972: The Sans-culottes: the Popular Movement and Revolutionary Government, 1793-1794 – (Doubleday/Anchor Books) Princeton University Press: ISBN 0-691-05320-0 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/0691053200).
1975: The French Revolution, 1787-1799: From the Storming of the Bastille to Napoleon – Random House; ISBN 0-394-47392-2 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/0394473922).
1977: A Short History of the French Revolution, 1789-1799 – University of California Press; ISBN 978-0-520-03419-8 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/9780520034198).
1988: Understanding the French Revolution – International Publishers; ISBN 0-7178-0658-8 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/0717806588).



hope that helps a little

[Makaru]

I have yet to read his work but George Rudé was definitely a Marxist historian and wrote a few books on the French Revolution and its wider context in Europe: The Crowd in the French Revolution, Revolutionary Europe, 1783-1815, Robespierre: Portrait of a Revolutionary Democrat, Interpretations of the French Revolution, and The French Revolution: Its Causes, Its History and Its Legacy After 200 Years.

[Zederbaum]

Daniel Guerin's Class struggle in the first French Republic should be on the menu. Hard to get hold of a copy though.

[Rooster]

A small bibliography:

Marxism and the Great French Revolution by Paul McGarr; a 100 page synopsis.

The Crowd in the French Revolution by George Rudé. That's out of print so I'm not sure if can find it but it's filled with details of who was involved with each uprising.

The French Revolution - History in the Making compiled by Georges Pernoud and Sabine Flassier. It contains excerpts of contemporary documents.

The Black Jacobins by CLR James which covers the slave uprising and how it was linked to the events in France.

Books about the build up to revolution; The Coming of the French Revolution by Georges Lefebvre, Origins of the French Revolution by William Doyle, The Ancien Regime and the French Revolution by Alexis de Tocqueville.

Books called The French Revolution that are worth a read by, Belfort Bax, George Lefebvre, A Goodwin and Christopher Hibbert.

There's also Kropotkin's The Great French Revolution and Echoes of Marseillaise by Eric Hobsbawm.

Also, A Social History of the French Revolution by Norman Hampson


i havnt read one of them, but i heard books from Albert Soboul about french revolution are very good works on that topic. he was a communist as well.

Wasn't he a staunch Stalinist?

[Tim Finnegan]

A further request for the same essay- any good texts discussing the theory of historical materialism, and of the transition from feudalism to capitalism generally? I don't need anything too heavy for these, basically just something I can cite when laying out the basic points. The German Ideology is the obvious one, of course, but it's not always the easiest thing to work with.

[Comrade-Z]

Good lists. Also, if you want to be familiar with what the recent anti-Marxists in the field have said, check out François Furet.

If you want a look at women in the French Revolution from a post-linguistic turn perspective, check out Joan Landes.