This book provides students and general readers with an introduction to revolutionary France whilst also presenting a clear argument to explain the events of the period.

• Provides students and general readers with an introduction to revolutionary France .
• Also presents a clear argument to explain the events of the period.
• Argues that the French Revolution encountered resistance from the poor as well as the privileged.
• Includes substantial discussion of society and government under Napoleon.
• Contextualizing material in each chapter aids students new to the topic.

D. M. G. Sutherland has been Professor of History at the University of Maryland since 1986. Before that, he taught in Canada and in the United Kingdom. His first book, The Chouans: A Social History of Popular Counterrevolution in Upper Brittany, 1780–1795 (1982), received honourable mention from the Canadian Historical Association. He also shared the Koren Prize awarded by the Society for French Historical Studies for the best article in a given year. He has received a number of other awards and fellowships of which the most recent is the Guggenheim Fellowship for 2001–02.