Words of Fire, Deeds of Blood: France in Revolution

Book excerpt: This book is a unique history of the French Revolution - a colorful, insightful, and impassioned recounting of the events that signaled the birth of modern France and, indeed, the modern world. In the space of just a few years, King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette descended from immense popularity and unquestionable power to a place on the scaffold. Beginning with the storming of the Bastille, the government of France went from oligarchy to near anarchy, and finally, to the formation of a republic. Along the way, the names of the major players - from Marat and Robespierre to Talleyrand and Mirabeau - were etched into the history of France as well as the rest of the world. Award-winning historian and biographer Olivier Bernier has turned to primary sources - including the correspondence of Marie Antoinette, the journals of the governess of the royal children, eyewitness accounts, and newspapers and journals of the time - to make sense of the rapid and profound change the Revolution incited. Words of Fire, Deeds of Blood is a stirring account of one of the most fascinating and significant periods in history.