Well last week I read and reviewed a book on a year in the American Revolution. I decided to stay with that theme, but look across the water for my next revolution.
My reviewer criteria. I like light, entertaining novels. I like smaller scale stories rather than epics. I like character focused novels featuring pleasant characters, with a minimum number of unpleasant ones. I greatly value clever and witty writing. I like first person, or close third person narratives. I dislike a lot of "head jumping" between POVs and flashbacks. I want a story, not a puzzle. While I am not opposed to violence, I dislike gore for the sake of gore. I find long and elaborate fight, action, and battle sequences tedious. Plot holes and things that happen for the convenience of the author annoy me. And I fear I'm a born critic in that I don't mind pointing out what I don't like in a story. However, I lay no claim to be the final arbitrator of style and taste, you need to decide for yourself what you like or dislike in a book.
Your opinions are always welcome. Comment below.
A New World Begins by Jeremy D Popkin C+
I will say right from the beginning, the C+ grade is mine, not Mr Popkins, as this is a very comprehensive book on the French Revolution with a great deal of information within 561 pages of text, not counting footnotes & such, which is far too much information for me to fully grasp more than a C+'s worth of it.
This is not to say that I didn't learn a lot about the French Revolution, because I did. It is rather that there is so much to learn about it. It has many actors, many twists and turns, many crises, and many achievements. While this book, I believe does a wonderful job of telling a decade long story in a single book, it would require much more time and effort for me to claim that I know more than a general overview of the revolution. All the leading characters, all the various factions that rose and fell, are pretty much a muddle in my mind after reading it. But then, I was mostly going for a general overview and I got that. If a reader really wants to really get deep into the events, politics, policies, and personalities of the period, I believe this book would be a good place to start. Mr Popkins has been studying this period all his professional life, and sets out the history of this turbulent period with just enough details to make it come to life, without becoming too dry and academic. On the other hand, if you want just an overview of the events, there might be shorter, more concise books.
Once again, knowing next to nothing about the French Revolution, It was interesting to see how turbulently it unfolded. Seen through the lens of life in the 21st century, it seems clear that people will never all agree on anything, and that, as the Taoists noted, there is a cycle, a circle to everything. Ideas rise, the fall, perhaps to be replaces with something somewhat the opposite, which intern falls to be replaced by something similar to what it had itself replaced... rinse and repeat.
This has some application in these days as well.
It was also interesting to see the role of the environment in the French Revolution. Several bad harvest during that period drove up the price of bread that led to unrest and uprisings in Paris that had direct consequences during the revolutionary period. Everything is connected.
And lastly, in my recent readings about the American Civil War, the American Revolution, and now the French Revolution, it is clear both how cruel people can be to each other, and how bad things can, and often do, get. We are very lucky today, here in America, and the developed world in general that however bad they may seem, they can be and have been far, far worse. That may the the lasting takeaway of all these books on wars and revolutions, long after the details fade.
A New Word Begins is a good book about the French Revolution, that will get you into the weeds, but not get you lost in them. Much.
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