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Article: FURTHER READING ON THE FRENCH REVOLUTION
- Article from:
- The Washington Post
- Article date:
- April 2, 1989
- Author:
CopyrightThis material is published under license from the Washington Post. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Washington Post. (Hide copyright information)
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HISTORY, they say, is a debate without end. For two centuries
now the debate over the nature of the French Revolution has been
unusually fierce and protracted. The sudden collapse of the
thousand-year-old French monarchy threw Europe into a 25-year war of
unprecedented ferocity; and when it was all over, the survivors-and
succeeding generations-had to make sense of it.
Was the grande re'volution the sweeping away of feudalism and the
emancipation of the middle class? Was it triggered by a preemptive
strike of the aristocracy against the centralization of power in the
monarchy? Was it French nationalism masquerading as human rights?
Was it the extension of the democratic ideals of the ...