Changes

Nigel Aston. ''[https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0813209773/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0813209773&linkCode=as2&tag=dailyh0c-20&linkId=8ca777fcba77d98598b09a79a912d188 Religion and the French Revolution: 1789-1804]'' (2006).

This work discusses the role of religion in the French Revolution. Aston argues that changes in religion contributed to the fall of the French Monarchy. Jansenism, a group within French Catholicism, had encouraged many people to know longer see the monarch as appointed by God. Furthermore, because of the enlightenment increasingly members of the elite and the middle class no longer believed in the teachings of the Catholic Church. They increasingly refused to believe that the French King was appointed by God to rule the country. These religious changes meant that many people were more willing to challenge the monarch during a socio-economic and political crisis and this led to the French Revolution.

Simon Schama. ''[https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0679726101/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0679726101&linkCode=as2&tag=dailyh0c-20&linkId=8b582d018cb66732d6d1b446fbfc9783 Citizens: A Chronicle of the French Revolution]''. (1990).

This work is a narrative and an analysis of the French Revolution. It is primarily concerned with the perspective of the main players in the French Revolution. The author portrays as France as a very vibrant society, that was advancing economically and intellectually. The royal government of Louis XVI was autocratic. Such a government was not suited for the vibrant and new society that was emerging in France. The elite and the middle class increasingly became frustrated with the monarchy. When there was a fiscal crisis in 1789, they decided to use this as a pretext to change the government and this led to the fall of Louis XVI.

Peter McPhee. <i>[https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0300189931/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0300189931&linkCode=as2&tag=dailyh0c-20&linkId=46bafe4a8c4235a2840cbb693e53919b Liberty or Death: The French Revolution]</i> (2016)

This is a very recent book on the French Revolution from Yale University Press. The book is focused on trying to determine whether the French Revolution was a world changing event or simply a part of a longer period of violence around the globe. McPhee's book attempts to reinterpret the impact of the French Revolution.

Alexis De Tocqueville. ''[https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0385092601/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0385092601&linkCode=as2&tag=dailyh0c-20&linkId=55f3ba45765bac002d5a143879d07545 The Old Regime and the French]'' (1998)

This work is a classic on the French Revolution by a great French historian. It was written in 1848. The author adopts a sociological approach and analyses the forces in society that produced the revolution. De Tocqueville argues that France was a society that needed reform in order to help the country to deal with its range of problems. The French did not want a revolution but want to reform their system of government. However, the failure of reform, led to growing frustration and anger and this ultimately led to extremists starting a revolution, that ended the ‘Ancien Regime’ in France.