A New World Begins: The History of the French Revolution - Paperback

by Jeremy Popkin (Author)

From an award-winning historian, a magisterial account of the revolution that created the modern world.

"A fresh and fair-minded account of the revolution overflowing with vivid narrative detail and clear exposition." --Wall Street Journal

The French Revolution's principles of liberty and equality still shape our ideas of a just society--even if, after more than two hundred years, their meaning is more contested than ever before. In A New World Begins, Jeremy D. Popkin offers a riveting account of the revolution that puts the reader in the thick of the debates and the violence that led to the overthrow of the monarchy and the establishment of a new society. We meet Mirabeau, Robespierre, and Danton, in all their brilliance and vengefulness; we witness the failed escape and execution of Louis XVI; we see women demanding equal rights and Black slaves wresting freedom from revolutionaries who hesitated to act on their own principles; and we follow the rise of Napoleon out of the ashes of the Reign of Terror.

Based on decades of scholarship, A New World Begins will stands as the definitive treatment of the French Revolution.

Author Biography

Jeremy D. Popkin holds the William T. Bryan chair of history at the University of Kentucky. He is the author of many books, including You Are All Free and A Short History of the French Revolution. He lives in Lexington, Kentucky.