Customer Reviews
Outstanding achievement to condense so much so well - By: Toulouse Le Plot, 26 Jan 2008 
As a complete novice with curiosity to feed I started Doyle's 'Oxford History of the French Revolution' together with Asprey's (2 vol) 'Rise & Fall of Napoleon Bonaparte' & Schama's 'Citizens', all together. Doyle's work is a perfect guide to illuminate this labyrinth - he engages very well & very early. For me this is a page-turner, consuming all available time & only with discipline can I put it down to cover the same ground from Asprey's perspective. This latter also a tremendously good read, a little lighter but the first half of the first volume makes a very good companion work. All that is left of Schama is a dentin the wall finally wrung out of my patience at page 83. I seem to bein a minority here, so I will simply record personal exasperation with Schama's style without seeking argument.
Comprehensive but overly so - By: Killian, 07 Apr 2007 
Comprehensive discussion on the revolution with a very practical application. I had hoped for more of a political/philosophical discussion on the topic & was slightly disappointedin this. That said, that book is encyclopaedicin its discussion & covers virtually everything that you might want to know about the practical events of the revolution. As a reference therefore - for anyone reading/writing on the topic - it is thoroughly indispensable... but for the rest of us & as a bedtime read the book is slightly tiresome, overly detailed & slow moving.
Very reliable, a little workmanlike - By: , 09 Sep 2001 One can't complain about this book's factual accuracy or its well-balanced analysis. For a newcomer to the story of the French Revolution, this would be a good place to start. But for those who already know something about the subject, the book is a little uninspiring. One craves for the kind of arresting detail that one finds, for example,in the works of Schama & Cobb.
A very English view - By: , 05 Oct 1999 A thorough English, empirical history of the Revolution. Some of the excitement of the Revolution may be lostin the narrative(unlike the author's exellent Origins of the French Revolution), but the detail & authority it exudes make this an essential text: the thickness of the paperback (and the difficultyin keeping it open!) may make the hardback a better investment.
The comprehensive guide to the French Revolution - By: , 09 Jun 1999 
From the opening description of the accession of Louis XVI, Doyle's work of outstanding scope & depth cuts to the heart of the historiographical debate surrounding one of the most written about periodsin history. His narrative style is niether overtly symplistic or inaccesable to newcomers to the topic but commands an authority of understanding & empathy which is compelling & fascinating. Doyle draws the reader into events such as the storming of the Bastille, the emblem of the fight for liberty, egality & fraternity, & later the disillusionment of the terror & the collapse of the new order. Throughout Doyle balances the different arguments from both the Marxist & revisionist camps producing a convincing & superbly supported study. If you are to read one book on the most controversial eventin history make it "The Oxford History of the French Revolution". If you feel you need to know more, read it again.
