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List of contents
Acknowledgements
Introduction
1. The Strict Rules of Each History of the Revolution, 1789-1815
2. Before the Revolutionary Past, 1815-1847
3. The National Myth and the Myth of Nations, 1848-1875
4. A Republican History, 1875-1914
5. The Revolutionary Use of History, 1914-1945
6. Revolutionary Orthodoxy and Historical Heresy, 1946-1989
Conclusion
Index
Summary
This book provides a critical examination of over 300 historical works about the French Revolution, published in Europe (in particular in France, Great Britain, Germany, Italy and Russia) as well as in the United States between 1789 and 1989. It also goes on to examine recent trends in French Revolution historiography and consider where histories of this landmark event may go in the future.
By emphasizing the elements which have been valued or hidden, exalted or silenced, Historicizing the French Revolution shows how reflections on 1789 are always fundamentally tied to the times in which they are formulated. Antonino De Francesco looks at the ways in which these historical accounts can be seen to support and, at times, contrast with the formation of political modernity – both in national and international contexts – as it has taken shape in the hundreds of years that have followed this key moment in world history.
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This is an enormously lucid, learned and instructive work that brims with insight into the many different ways the French Revolution has been interpreted over time. It will prove enormously useful to students and professional historians alike
