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The Revolutionary Temper: Paris, 1748-1789
A groundbreaking account of the coming of the French Revolution from a historian of worldwide acclaim. When a Parisian crowd stormed the Bastille in July 1789, it triggered an event of global the overthrow of the monarchy and the birth of a new society. Most historians account for the French Revolution by viewing it in retrospect as the outcome of underlying conditions such as a faltering economy, social tensions, or the influence of Enlightenment thought. But what did Parisians themselves think they were doing―how did they understand their world? What were the motivations and aspirations that guided their actions? In this dazzling history, Robert Darnton addresses these questions by drawing on decades of close study to conjure a past as vivid as today’s news. He explores eighteenth-century Paris as an information society much like our own, its news circuits centered in cafés, on park benches, and under the Palais-Royal’s Tree of Cracow. Through pamphlets, gossip, underground newsletters, and public performances, the events of some forty years―from disastrous treaties, official corruption, and royal debauchery to thrilling hot-air balloon ascents and new understandings of the nation―all entered the churning collective consciousness of ordinary Parisians. As public trust in royal authority eroded and new horizons opened for them, Parisians prepared themselves for revolution. Darnton’s authority and sure judgment enable readers to confidently navigate the passions and complexities of controversies over court politics, Church doctrine, and the economy. And his compact, luminous prose creates an immersive reading experience. Here is a riveting narrative that succeeds in making the past a living presence. 16 pages of illustrations
576 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2023
About the author
Robert Darnton
57 books152 followersCarl H. Pforzheimer University Professor and Director of the Harvard University Library
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Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
December 20, 2023
I studied 18th-century France in college, and I read some of Darnton’s work before. But what a pleasure it was, with my undergrad years behind me, to really take the time to savor this book.
Darnton uses on-the-ground sources to give a sense of how Parisians of different social classes reacted to the turbulent political climate of the latter half of the 1700s. The book provides a big-picture history that is ornamented with — or, arguably, pillared on — the minute observations of diarists, pamphleteers, and proto-journalists.
Even though you know how the story ends in 1789, it never feels inevitable while reading “The Revolutionary Temper.” Through his prose (which is finely crafted and at times even beautiful), Darnton hits home the fact that nothing about the storming of the Bastille was destined to happen, and he emphasizes how unthinkable the Revolution was in the years leading up to it.
Darnton sets out his argument in fuller terms in an informative bibliographic essay at the end (and also in an oblique introduction, the book’s only disappointment). But regardless of what you think about his reading of events, “The Revolutionary Temper” is a delightful and informative read.
Darnton uses on-the-ground sources to give a sense of how Parisians of different social classes reacted to the turbulent political climate of the latter half of the 1700s. The book provides a big-picture history that is ornamented with — or, arguably, pillared on — the minute observations of diarists, pamphleteers, and proto-journalists.
Even though you know how the story ends in 1789, it never feels inevitable while reading “The Revolutionary Temper.” Through his prose (which is finely crafted and at times even beautiful), Darnton hits home the fact that nothing about the storming of the Bastille was destined to happen, and he emphasizes how unthinkable the Revolution was in the years leading up to it.
Darnton sets out his argument in fuller terms in an informative bibliographic essay at the end (and also in an oblique introduction, the book’s only disappointment). But regardless of what you think about his reading of events, “The Revolutionary Temper” is a delightful and informative read.
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November 14, 2023The Tree of Cracow was a huge chestnut tree that stood in the northern part of the gardens of the Palais-Royal at the heart of Paris in the years before the French Revolution. Beneath its branches newsmongers gathered daily to dispense the news, ancien régime style, by word of mouth. It was part of an information system – a sort of 18th-century equivalent to social media – and much like its modern counterpart it bristled with rumour, speculation, conspiracy theories and questionable assertions. Under a regime that censored politics, religion and morals, the Palais-Royal occupied a privileged space. It belonged to the Duke of Orléans, a cousin of Louis XVI, and one of the wealthiest men in France. The precincts of the Palais-Royal housed shops, theatres, cafes, gambling dens, printing presses and sellers of books and pamphlets, but Orléans had jurisdiction over the site, which meant that the police could not raid its bookstalls or scour its cafes for undesirables. As the trade in clandestine books and unfettered news thrived, it became a centre for the exchange of ideas. And, in the late 18th century, it became the birthplace of the French Revolution.
No one is better placed to uncover this world and bring it to life than Robert Darnton, a historian who emerged from a background in journalism at the New York Times to write a series of pathbreaking studies on 18th-century literature and the cultural impact of the Enlightenment that have inspired a generation of historians. The Revolutionary Temper is the culmination of Darnton’s output and, like all his works, it is very readable. It reveals the reactions of ordinary Parisians to political developments, from the mid-18th century to the storming of the Bastille in July 1789. Politics was the business of the king and his ministers, conducted behind closed doors in the form of power struggles between factions of rival courtiers, ministers and royal mistresses. For ordinary Parisians, excluded from the privileged world of Versailles, concrete information was lacking, sowing doubt and, therefore, speculation and wild rumour. Occasionally politics circumvented censorship – often with the connivance of disaffected courtiers – and spilled onto the streets of Paris.
Darnton provides a sweeping account of succeeding events from the Parisian perspective, encompassing disastrous wars, struggles over Enlightenment ideas, fights for religious toleration and crazes for all manner of new phenomena, such as hot air balloons and mesmerism. He reveals this story through evocative sources, including pamphlets, libel cases, judicial memoirs and songs – the latter particularly dangerous, because they reached down through every stratum of society, including the poor and illiterate.
Read the rest of the review at HistoryToday.com.
Marisa Linton is Professor Emerita of History at Kingston University. Her latest book is Terror: The French Revolution and Its Demons (Polity, 2021).
No one is better placed to uncover this world and bring it to life than Robert Darnton, a historian who emerged from a background in journalism at the New York Times to write a series of pathbreaking studies on 18th-century literature and the cultural impact of the Enlightenment that have inspired a generation of historians. The Revolutionary Temper is the culmination of Darnton’s output and, like all his works, it is very readable. It reveals the reactions of ordinary Parisians to political developments, from the mid-18th century to the storming of the Bastille in July 1789. Politics was the business of the king and his ministers, conducted behind closed doors in the form of power struggles between factions of rival courtiers, ministers and royal mistresses. For ordinary Parisians, excluded from the privileged world of Versailles, concrete information was lacking, sowing doubt and, therefore, speculation and wild rumour. Occasionally politics circumvented censorship – often with the connivance of disaffected courtiers – and spilled onto the streets of Paris.
Darnton provides a sweeping account of succeeding events from the Parisian perspective, encompassing disastrous wars, struggles over Enlightenment ideas, fights for religious toleration and crazes for all manner of new phenomena, such as hot air balloons and mesmerism. He reveals this story through evocative sources, including pamphlets, libel cases, judicial memoirs and songs – the latter particularly dangerous, because they reached down through every stratum of society, including the poor and illiterate.
Read the rest of the review at HistoryToday.com.
Marisa Linton is Professor Emerita of History at Kingston University. Her latest book is Terror: The French Revolution and Its Demons (Polity, 2021).
May 24, 2024
How did news and information circulate in eighteenth-century Paris? And how did Parisians respond to that information? What kinds of narratives caught their attention? And how did those circulating narratives shape and reshape their understanding of the world and of politics? Starting with these questions, Darnton discusses the decades leading up to the outbreak of revolution in 1789. The book isn't really about the revolution at all (though he does have a chapter at the end that discusses the revolutionary consequences of the patterns he analyses), but about the preparing of the revolutionary ground. And he suggests at the end at how revolutionary violence can break out after long periods of rising tensions, how single threads of frustration and corruption and anger and disorder and resentment can suddenly come together in a revolutionary rope that shocks and suprises everyone at the time but that in retrospect seems almost inevitable.
January 18, 2024
A gripping and well-told narrative, but does not quite live up to the promise of depicting the decentralized "information society" of mid to late eighteenth century Paris. Events are often summarized at a high level of generality, with crowds operating as impersonal masses and Paris treated as a singular entity. Darnton relies on a few exceptional voices, especially Simeon-Prosper Hardy's journal, to stand in for the whole city, and as a result I was surprised in how much the narrative lacked texture, color, and specificity. I enjoyed getting a story of the major cultural and political controversies of the end of the old regime from the perspective of Paris as a city, but I ultimately learned less than I thought I would at the start of the introduction. A great book, but not one that I think makes a great historiographic contribution (and some of its emphases, especially on desacralization, are outdated).
September 19, 2024
A well written history book. As I read I had in the back of my mind what was happening in the colonies/United States during this period. But also the history happening around me today, how social media acts as the pamphlets and songs did then in Paris.
February 11, 2024
When I was a grade school kid in the '70s, like all American children of the day I knew that Mikey died when his stomach exploded from eating pop rocks and Pepsi together. This was the days before the internet, social media, even cable tv. The only national media were the network news shows, but they did not report on Mikey's alleged death, nor would seven year old me have listened anyway. How did the same myth spread so widely and so far geographically. A question that has always amazed me. Mr. Darnton looks at the widely held opinions of Parisians in the 18th century leading up to the storming of the Bastille. He looks into a fundamental question of history - how do crowds with a single purpose develop? We all know how Twitter and Facebook play a part in the Arab Spring or the Orange Revolution, but how did the crowds of revolutionary Paris come together and act in unison?
Had I written this review after the first 100 pages, I would have panned it, but as the book goes on, Mr. Darnton weaves disparate strands into a masterful tapestry of the radicalization of ordinary Parisians. Mr. Darnton does not focus on factual occurrences, rather he focuses on how events were made know to Parisians and then how they were spread through public consciousness. Rumor is just as important to Mr. Darnton, provided it circulated widely. Mr. Darnton flushes out the information culture of Mid-Eighteenth century Paris by looking at secret police reports, pamphlets, unsanctioned newspapers and posters. In particular, Mr. Darnton makes use of songs that Parisians sang about current events (the Twitter of the day) as reported in contemporary journals and secret police reports.
The early Parisians received reports through these unsanctioned and unreliable channels about foreign wars, court politics and scandals. Much of the early chapters revolve around scandalous news cycles that were more salacious than political. At times the stories feel disjointed. Individually they are interesting essays, but they don't really cohere in a central thesis. By the conclusion, Mr. Darnton weaves the central themes of each of these episodes into a radicalization of ordinary citizens and a consciousness that the institutions of the day were delegitimized. He notes how widespread knowledge of scandals became more and more political and more and more understood as a failure of all of the institutions of the day.
Reading this book in the months before Trump v. Biden II is chilling. One cannot help but think of the way diametrically opposed narratives spread in 21st Century America. How humor and sarcasm fade into violence. How constant criticism of institutions and challenging of all authority event
usally leads to loss of all legitimacy. Of course, things are different today than in 18th Century Paris. We have inflation, but it has not led to mass hunger. We have better ways of counteracting rumor with truth. Nevertheless, the sense of foundations crumbling in the book reflects very much in reading or watching news today.
One footnote - Mr. Darnton notes in his acknowledgements that the germ of this book began in his doctoral thesis in 1964 (three years before I was born). That blew me away. I went and looked Mr. Darnton up on Wikipedia. He was born in 1939. This book was published at the end of 2023 when Mr. Darnton was 83. I view my similarly aged parents and am amazed at Mr. Darnton's capabilities as an octogenarian! At least I can draw comfort from his capabilities when I think of my choices for President in the election this fall.
Had I written this review after the first 100 pages, I would have panned it, but as the book goes on, Mr. Darnton weaves disparate strands into a masterful tapestry of the radicalization of ordinary Parisians. Mr. Darnton does not focus on factual occurrences, rather he focuses on how events were made know to Parisians and then how they were spread through public consciousness. Rumor is just as important to Mr. Darnton, provided it circulated widely. Mr. Darnton flushes out the information culture of Mid-Eighteenth century Paris by looking at secret police reports, pamphlets, unsanctioned newspapers and posters. In particular, Mr. Darnton makes use of songs that Parisians sang about current events (the Twitter of the day) as reported in contemporary journals and secret police reports.
The early Parisians received reports through these unsanctioned and unreliable channels about foreign wars, court politics and scandals. Much of the early chapters revolve around scandalous news cycles that were more salacious than political. At times the stories feel disjointed. Individually they are interesting essays, but they don't really cohere in a central thesis. By the conclusion, Mr. Darnton weaves the central themes of each of these episodes into a radicalization of ordinary citizens and a consciousness that the institutions of the day were delegitimized. He notes how widespread knowledge of scandals became more and more political and more and more understood as a failure of all of the institutions of the day.
Reading this book in the months before Trump v. Biden II is chilling. One cannot help but think of the way diametrically opposed narratives spread in 21st Century America. How humor and sarcasm fade into violence. How constant criticism of institutions and challenging of all authority event
usally leads to loss of all legitimacy. Of course, things are different today than in 18th Century Paris. We have inflation, but it has not led to mass hunger. We have better ways of counteracting rumor with truth. Nevertheless, the sense of foundations crumbling in the book reflects very much in reading or watching news today.
One footnote - Mr. Darnton notes in his acknowledgements that the germ of this book began in his doctoral thesis in 1964 (three years before I was born). That blew me away. I went and looked Mr. Darnton up on Wikipedia. He was born in 1939. This book was published at the end of 2023 when Mr. Darnton was 83. I view my similarly aged parents and am amazed at Mr. Darnton's capabilities as an octogenarian! At least I can draw comfort from his capabilities when I think of my choices for President in the election this fall.
May 1, 2024
The Ancien Regime, as the French ruling class was known in 18th-century France, always sounds like such an immovable force. It speaks of arbitrary power, stiffened with protocol, girded by gold, topped by a dusting of icing sugar (something we all enjoy about France today) and utterly stuck in its ways. Until, that is, revolution arrived in 1789 with a clap of thunder to reset the clock so that everything could start over. Yet, as is shown in this book, the last 50 years of old France were in fact febrile and shifting, rocked by a series of social and political affairs that reached far beyond elite circles, engaging men and women who were more used to worrying whether the cost of bread would rise by another two sous--which of course it did, and that was also in the mix.
The author labels this new flexible mood the “revolutionary temper”, by which he doesn’t simply mean that the French people eventually became so cross that they embarked on a program of violent protest that led to the guillotining of the king and queen in 1793. Rather, he is referring to a frame of mind that was shifting. The role of food prices is not fully fleshed out in here, which is a pity because it sounds like there were some climactic factors that led to severe weather and crop failure that might have been a harbinger of the future (or maybe not). Instead he suggests that between the end of the war of the Austrian succession in 1748 and the storming of the Bastille in 1789, the French population underwent a series of convulsions, some as molten as others were icy, which resulted in a subtle but powerful molecular shift. After 500 years of rigidity, it made anything seem possible. Edmund Burke's 'Reflections on the French Revolution', published in 1790, posits that unlike America, the French were not ready for democracy, whereas this author focuses on the things that boiled over rather than why ultimately the whole thing collapsed on itself.
The author labels this new flexible mood the “revolutionary temper”, by which he doesn’t simply mean that the French people eventually became so cross that they embarked on a program of violent protest that led to the guillotining of the king and queen in 1793. Rather, he is referring to a frame of mind that was shifting. The role of food prices is not fully fleshed out in here, which is a pity because it sounds like there were some climactic factors that led to severe weather and crop failure that might have been a harbinger of the future (or maybe not). Instead he suggests that between the end of the war of the Austrian succession in 1748 and the storming of the Bastille in 1789, the French population underwent a series of convulsions, some as molten as others were icy, which resulted in a subtle but powerful molecular shift. After 500 years of rigidity, it made anything seem possible. Edmund Burke's 'Reflections on the French Revolution', published in 1790, posits that unlike America, the French were not ready for democracy, whereas this author focuses on the things that boiled over rather than why ultimately the whole thing collapsed on itself.
April 5, 2024
Een interessant, vlot geschreven boek! Darnton richt zich op Parijs als informatiegemeenschap, oftewel, hij is geïnteresseerd in het nieuws, nepnieuws, opinies, pamfletten, liederen en roddels die er de ronde doen. Dankzij de brede interesse van de Parijzenaren wordt er een grote diversiteit aan onderwerpen behandeld; van de eerste ballonvaarten tot aan invloedrijke kwakzalvers, en van de Amerikaanse Revolutie tot aan de buitenechtelijke affaires van de koning. Het voordeel hiervan is dat de diversiteit aan onderwerpen, behandeld in behapbare hoofdstukken, ervoor zorgt dat het boek nooit langdradig wordt. Het nadeel is dat niet elk onderwerp even interessant is. Roddels ontrent het Franse koningshuis van de 18e eeuw zijn weliswaar iets interessanter dan RTL Boulevard, maar niet veel.
Bovendien worstelt Darnton met zijn eigen ambitie. Zo wil hij laten zien wat de 'gewone' Parijzenaar dacht, maar wordt hij door zijn bronnen beperkt tot de gedachtes van een beperkt aantal Parijzenaars. Dit selecte groepje lijkt bovendien te bestaan uit het deel van de bevolking dat het relatief goed had, waardoor het gissen blijft hoe de onderlaag erin stond. Daarnaast komt Darntons plan om aan te tonen dat er in deze jaren onder de bevolking zoiets als een 'revolutionary temper' ontstaat niet helemaal uit de verf. Vaak komt hij aan het eind van het hoofdstuk aan met een niet heel overtuigend verband met revolutionaire gedachtes. Bovendien lijken de politieke ontwikkelingen voor het overgrote deel toch echt een elitekwestie te zijn geweest, iets wat zich tussen Versailles en het parlement afspeelt en waar de bevolking weinig mee te maken heeft.
Desalniettemin met veel plezier gelezen! Ik zou aanraden het hele boek te lezen, maar te beginnen bij de conclusie. Zo vallen je tijdens het lezen beter de dingen op die Darnton belangrijk vindt.
Bovendien worstelt Darnton met zijn eigen ambitie. Zo wil hij laten zien wat de 'gewone' Parijzenaar dacht, maar wordt hij door zijn bronnen beperkt tot de gedachtes van een beperkt aantal Parijzenaars. Dit selecte groepje lijkt bovendien te bestaan uit het deel van de bevolking dat het relatief goed had, waardoor het gissen blijft hoe de onderlaag erin stond. Daarnaast komt Darntons plan om aan te tonen dat er in deze jaren onder de bevolking zoiets als een 'revolutionary temper' ontstaat niet helemaal uit de verf. Vaak komt hij aan het eind van het hoofdstuk aan met een niet heel overtuigend verband met revolutionaire gedachtes. Bovendien lijken de politieke ontwikkelingen voor het overgrote deel toch echt een elitekwestie te zijn geweest, iets wat zich tussen Versailles en het parlement afspeelt en waar de bevolking weinig mee te maken heeft.
Desalniettemin met veel plezier gelezen! Ik zou aanraden het hele boek te lezen, maar te beginnen bij de conclusie. Zo vallen je tijdens het lezen beter de dingen op die Darnton belangrijk vindt.
March 31, 2024
The more I read about revolutions, especially the big ones, the more complicated they seem, Comparative studies such as by Hannah Arendt bring up similarities and differences by show incredible uniqueness - compare the US, French, and Russian Revolutions. The dynamics seem strongly governed by distinctive persons and key situations. At the same time, however, there is a remarkable continuity between the revolutionary moment and the history the led up to the revolutionary moment and breakthrough. I don’t see that the analysis will ever get fully nailed down, but it is always fascinating to read, especially the farther away one is from events.
Robert Barnton’s new book is a detailed look at the social and cultural dynamics in the forty-one years prior to 1789 that set the stage for the Revolution. A large number of fairly small events and activity patterns gelled around Paris in the years of Enlightenment leading up to 1789. This is a fun intellectual history not just of intellectuals but of popular consciousness that soon took over and ran past the intellectuals. There is a temptation to see all of this as an historical account that has no implications today. That would be a mistake, however. In a time of social media, fake news, and phony events, it has never been easier to mobilize mobs to almost whatever direction one wants. While the US does not have that tradition of street demonstrations that Paris has, it has enough to be concerned and involved. France seems to have nearly perpetual renewals of mass protest every few years.
This is a long read but well worth the effort.
Robert Barnton’s new book is a detailed look at the social and cultural dynamics in the forty-one years prior to 1789 that set the stage for the Revolution. A large number of fairly small events and activity patterns gelled around Paris in the years of Enlightenment leading up to 1789. This is a fun intellectual history not just of intellectuals but of popular consciousness that soon took over and ran past the intellectuals. There is a temptation to see all of this as an historical account that has no implications today. That would be a mistake, however. In a time of social media, fake news, and phony events, it has never been easier to mobilize mobs to almost whatever direction one wants. While the US does not have that tradition of street demonstrations that Paris has, it has enough to be concerned and involved. France seems to have nearly perpetual renewals of mass protest every few years.
This is a long read but well worth the effort.
May 17, 2024
This is a magisterial history recounting the factors that led up the French Revolution. Darnton is in complete command of a wide variety of soci0-economic forces that are difficult to measure with precision but, in total, clearly ended the French monarchy. He writes in detail about the thinkers--Voltaire, Rousseau, Diderot--who opened minds to the possibility of life beyond aristocratic domination...about the decadence and financial mismanagement of the French court that aroused general resentment...about the Church's stubborn refusal to pay its share of national expenses...about secular governmental administrators who threw back the curtains revealing huge national deficits...about the feckless military adventures of Louis XV and XVI...about the impact of the price of bread...and about the ways in which public discourse, fueled by hundreds of pamphlets, led the Third Estate (the people) to believe it had a foundational role in defining French policy. France was a nation in decline, a debtor, rotten with unjustifiable aristocratic privilege.
Darnton probably is the only historian of France who could have written this book. There is little editorializing here, just an exciting account of how the ancien regime fell lost legitimacy and fell apart.
Darnton probably is the only historian of France who could have written this book. There is little editorializing here, just an exciting account of how the ancien regime fell lost legitimacy and fell apart.
September 11, 2024
This was a impressively written and well-researched book. The author demonstrated clear mastery of the material he covered and embedded a wealth of primary sources in the text to draw out his narrative. Each chapter is informed by a particular event or succession of relate events, and are mostly based on the pamphlets, plays, reports, or other primary documents tied to that event. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and learned quite a bit about Paris and Parisians in the lead-up to the early days of the French Revolution.
I do wish the narrative continued further. The final chapters address the storming of the Bastille and it’s immediate aftermath aftermath; many successive events that occurred shortly after this are not addressed. I certainly understand the author’s decision not to continue his book past this point (it is a foundational event in the period); fingers crossed that he decides to continue his approach from this book in a sequel focused on the years 1789-1804. I would greatly enjoy continuing to learn from the writings of the French how they reacted to and informed the events of that crucial period.
I do wish the narrative continued further. The final chapters address the storming of the Bastille and it’s immediate aftermath aftermath; many successive events that occurred shortly after this are not addressed. I certainly understand the author’s decision not to continue his book past this point (it is a foundational event in the period); fingers crossed that he decides to continue his approach from this book in a sequel focused on the years 1789-1804. I would greatly enjoy continuing to learn from the writings of the French how they reacted to and informed the events of that crucial period.
January 21, 2024
This book has me in full Stefon Mode. This book has everything: a description of four or five incredibly complex scandals featuring deeply weird nobles. It has everyone in Paris being annoyed at Louis XV's girlfriends. It has a fascinating account of the way that things that actually mattered, like the cost of bread, were understood to relate to these absurd scandals. It was a ton of stuff about the Comte de Mirabeau (already goofy) and the Comte d'Artois (already supremely annoying). It has--weird category--one of the best conclusions to a history book I've ever read, which made a whole host of smart but non-forced analyses of what people could learn about this period with respect to their own, current lives. I am apologetic to all of the people I actually know for how much they will hear me talk about the Diamond Necklace Affair and the Jansenists versus the Jesuits, and Mesmer versus everyone. I have not even mentioned the hot air balloons: this book has a lot of stuff about hot air balloons, which was good, too.
August 5, 2024
I really liked this book. The years leading up to the French Revolution are thoroughly documented in existing works. The author of this took on the challenge of telling of these events through the perspective of ordinary Parisians. To what extent did the average person witness and understand what was going on around them during the 1780s? How did these events impact their daily lives? Overall a very informative social history. What also made this special is reading it while we were in Paris. As we navigated our way through the modern majestic city, i certainly felt connected with 18th century Parisians by walking some of the same bridges and streets.
February 5, 2024
An incredible insight into the daily life and mindset of Parisians during the heady days leading up to the French Revolution. You really feel as though you inhabit the streets, hear the topical songs and the shouts of the nouvellistes in the gardens of the city and read the illegal pamphlets and polemics of the day. Absolutely exceptional view of history from the angle of the contemporary news as experienced by the people.
April 19, 2024
This is simply superb! A truly delightful history of how the years and events from 1748 to 1789 prepared the Parisians and other Frenchmen for the great work of casting aside the ancien regime, and especially the parts played by the mass media of the day, the huge number of pamphlets and news sheets known as nouvelles a la main which formed, Darnton contends, an "early information society" that shaped the collective consciousness of the nation. Highly recommended!
June 22, 2024
Probably the best book I have read on the events which led to the French Revolution in 1789. The longer time frame compared to most other works gives a broader perspective to the subject and each element is presented in a clear and readable way.
My one small gripe would be the author's habit of quoting from his original French sources but not always providing a translation, which is frustrating at times if, like me, your French is far from fluent.
My one small gripe would be the author's habit of quoting from his original French sources but not always providing a translation, which is frustrating at times if, like me, your French is far from fluent.
January 26, 2024
A really interesting read, but it did strike me as a bit episodic in its treatment of Paris and its inhabitants’ reactions to the political events of the day. Also, considering all the attention it gives to the Diamond Necklace Affair, I was pretty surprised not to see much discussion of the libelles that focused so scandalously (and graphically) on Marie Antoinette’s reported sex life.
July 22, 2024
One of the best books I’ve read in a long time. The French Revolution is of course endlessly fascinating, as are the developments that led to it, and this book really has something to add. Robert Darnton writes about the revolutionary temper that slowly came to fruition in Paris in the second half of the eighteenth century, as seen through memoirs, diaries, journals and above all the pamphlet literature of the time. It is not about how politics ‘really’ played out, but about what Parisians made of it all in their everyday experience.
November 26, 2023
Five stars for both this and Darnton’s outstanding career and his scholarship on the book trade, culture and mentalite in the 18th century. This book on the decades leading up to the French Revolution is a distillation of that work: bite sized chapters focusing on “anecdotes” of popular consciousness as the people turned against the Ancient Regime. The scope ranges from bread riots and the Paris “street” to the philosophes to power politics (and a lot of sex) in the corridors of Versailles. Wide ranging and very readable. Has the most cogent summary of the Diamond Necklace affair that I’ve read!
February 13, 2024
A thorough analysis of the events leading up the storming of the bastille and the French Revolution. The events change the country and have repercussions around the world. Robert Darnton does extensive research.
April 20, 2024
While I couldn't quite get through this as an e-Book, by the time the audiobook version popped up at the library I gave it another try. Although much easier to consume in the audio version, I found my interest waning at times, while at others the topic(s) definitely kept my interest.
August 15, 2024
Very interesting and helpful to understand better the phase pre-revolutionary. Nicely written and pretty entertaining. 4/5 only because there were 2 chapters that I found really hard to read due to the topic
January 25, 2024
Essential reading for anyone interested in French history. An amazing accomplishment.
February 1, 2024
The telling of history is changing. The techniques of assessment are shifting. There is no guide to new directions in literary and historical criticism because it is as yet so amorphous.
Angus Fletcher's WONDERWORKS at first seemed an historical overview of novel-writing, but it turns out to be a first salvo in a new criteria of analysis - innovation in story-telling technique rather than adherence to 'traditional rules' of storytelling being prized.
The historical re-assessment in the US really began in the aftermath of the Sally Hemings revelations within a decade, Jefferson was no longer the ideal philosopher of his generation, but a flawed man coming to terms with circumstances he finds himself surrounded by.
After studying the history of the Constitution and the US, I began to ask the question, what happened in 1848 that was so traumatic that traditional accounts of the period rarely refer to it, even obliquely.
I had to turn to a socialist historian, Eric Hobsbawm, for my answers. In THE AGE OF REVOLUTION, 1789 - 1848, history is told, not from the "Great Man" perspective of power, politics and conquest, but of life as it is lived at the level of the individual citizen, not the power players who lord it over them. It was a first for me, telling the historical story from ground-level instead of from on-high, and it brought me to a new assessment of not only history, but of historical analysis as well.
This is actually a pre-publication copy that I'm somehow reading (the copyright is dated 2024). I'm glad to get an early start on it.
THE REVOLUTIONARY TEMPER is well-placed to develop these ideas by concentrating on The News At Hand, in the Undercover journals - "les nouvelles à la main", "sur le manteau" - and the way news circulated on the streets of Paris during these times of radical change, and how each system fed into the other until the French Revolution was an inevitability.
The comparable idea today would be the chronicle of the age as told on social media. I'm only 40 pages in, but I'm fascinated.
I finished this book by the end of January 2024, and it is a wonderful, well-written and well-researched work of history; its perspective is illuminating, and the way Darnton wrote it is flawless. I can't recommend this book any higher.
I have a minor in French from Syracuse University, but I'd never done as much reading about the French Revolution until I found Hilary Mantel's A PLACE OF GREATER SAFETY, which REVOLUTIONARY TEMPER helps to flesh out and enliven in unexpected ways.
Angus Fletcher's WONDERWORKS at first seemed an historical overview of novel-writing, but it turns out to be a first salvo in a new criteria of analysis - innovation in story-telling technique rather than adherence to 'traditional rules' of storytelling being prized.
The historical re-assessment in the US really began in the aftermath of the Sally Hemings revelations within a decade, Jefferson was no longer the ideal philosopher of his generation, but a flawed man coming to terms with circumstances he finds himself surrounded by.
After studying the history of the Constitution and the US, I began to ask the question, what happened in 1848 that was so traumatic that traditional accounts of the period rarely refer to it, even obliquely.
I had to turn to a socialist historian, Eric Hobsbawm, for my answers. In THE AGE OF REVOLUTION, 1789 - 1848, history is told, not from the "Great Man" perspective of power, politics and conquest, but of life as it is lived at the level of the individual citizen, not the power players who lord it over them. It was a first for me, telling the historical story from ground-level instead of from on-high, and it brought me to a new assessment of not only history, but of historical analysis as well.
This is actually a pre-publication copy that I'm somehow reading (the copyright is dated 2024). I'm glad to get an early start on it.
THE REVOLUTIONARY TEMPER is well-placed to develop these ideas by concentrating on The News At Hand, in the Undercover journals - "les nouvelles à la main", "sur le manteau" - and the way news circulated on the streets of Paris during these times of radical change, and how each system fed into the other until the French Revolution was an inevitability.
The comparable idea today would be the chronicle of the age as told on social media. I'm only 40 pages in, but I'm fascinated.
I finished this book by the end of January 2024, and it is a wonderful, well-written and well-researched work of history; its perspective is illuminating, and the way Darnton wrote it is flawless. I can't recommend this book any higher.
I have a minor in French from Syracuse University, but I'd never done as much reading about the French Revolution until I found Hilary Mantel's A PLACE OF GREATER SAFETY, which REVOLUTIONARY TEMPER helps to flesh out and enliven in unexpected ways.
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