University of Chicago Readings in Western Civilization, Volume 7: The Old Regime and the French Revolution Volume 7

Practically no other set of events in history has had as many volumes reviewing, extolling, condemning and sensationalizing it (if that's possible here) as the French Revolution. But few have included many pages of first-hand accounts of street actions or speeches. This series in general, and this volume for the Revolution, fills in this gap in English, and is an essential aid in understanding how people and leaders of the day really thought. The true mentality of Robespierre cannot be comprehended from all the psychoanalyses conducted 100-200 years later, as well as from the lengthy passages of his own speeches reproduced here. I don't know what my fellow reviewer means by saying that Robespierre's Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen from 1793 is missing. This famous declaration, framed and hanging on the wall of the Committee of Public Safety right through Robespierre's downfall, was drafted by the Assembly in August 1789, before Robespierre came to Paris and entered politics. One omission is the Law of 14 Frimaire (Dec 4) 1793, giving the Reign of Terror a constitutional basis. But this is a very long affair, and incidentally, primarily written by fellow committee member Billaud-Varenne.

The book presents a very nice documentary narrative of the major events and circumstances of the French Revolution. Some entries are a bit puzzling, like the Diderot passage, and there are some gaps, such as Robespierre's "Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen" (1793), but the overall value of the book is not diminished and can be supplemented by online sources (as was done in the class I took). Baker is, of course, a very fine intellectual historian, and his notes always provide sufficient transitions between the documents.