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Article: Startlingly diverse views of the French revolution
- Article from:
- Chicago Sun-Times
- Article date:
- May 28, 1989
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright (null) Chicago Sun-Times. (Hide copyright information)
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Citizens A Chronicle of the French Revolution. By Simon Schama.
Knopf. $29.95.
Words of Fire, Deeds of Blood The Mob, the Monarchy, and the French
Revolution. By Olivier Bernier. Little, Brown. $21.95.
The French currently are commemorating, but not really
celebrating, the bicentennial of their revolution of 1789. They have
been sharply divided about the revolution since it happened, and the
1980s are not an era in which revolutions are fashionable. Few
people today agree with the passion of the young Wordsworth, who
proclaimed that it was "bliss to be alive" at that "dawn of
civilization."
American consciousness of the French revolution has
traditionally been schizophrenic, splitting ...