Georges Lefebvre (1877-1959) French historian and member of the influential Annales School of historical thought. He held the chair of the French Revolution at the Sorbonne and was Director of the Annales Historiques de la Revolution Francaise.
Translated from the French by two American scholars, John Hall Stewart and James Friguglietti, this book contains the last three parts and the conclusion of the late Prof. Lefebvre's La Revolution Francaise, the first part of this definitive study having previously appeared in English translation. Beginning in 1793 and ending on the eve of Napoleon's coup d' ??tat in November, 1799, this volume emphasizes the political rather than the military and social aspects of the final years of the Revolution: conflicts between parties and leaders; the political causes of the Terror; the struggle with England; Napoleon's rise to power. No detail of these six years is omitted; no law, however obscure, is unmentioned; no actor in the drama is unnamed. Ponderous in French and equally so in this excellent translation, this authoritative book, a mine of information and reference for scholars and students of the Revolution, will hold little appeal for amateurs in the subject, who will find Loomis's Paris in the Terror and Maurois' biography of Mme. de Lafayette considerably less formidable. (Kirkus Reviews)