Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
  1. Home
  2. Books
  3. The French Revolution
    Show more authors
    • You may already have access via personal or institutional login
  • Select format
  • Publisher:
    Cambridge University Press
    Publication date:
    31 May 2026
    25 June 2026
    ISBN:
    9781009463898
    9781009463935
    9781009463904
    DOI:
    https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009463898
    Dimensions:
    (216 x 140 mm)
    Weight & Pages:
    0.791kg, 200 Pages
    Dimensions:
    (216 x 140 mm)
    Weight & Pages:
    0.352kg, 200 Pages
    • Subjects:
    Area Studies, European History after 1450, History, European Studies, Global History, History of Ideas and Intellectual History
    Series:
    Worldmaking
You may already have access via personal or institutional login
    • Selected: Digital
    Add to cart View cart Buy from Cambridge.org
    Subjects:
    Area Studies, European History after 1450, History, European Studies, Global History, History of Ideas and Intellectual History
    Series:
    Worldmaking
    Information

    Book description

    Three questions have usually been asked about the French Revolution: why did it happen? why was it so violent? and what was its legacy? These questions seem to beg other, more conceptually ambitious queries about causation, violence or legacies. This book aims to answer both sets of questions by bringing together events and ideas. Michael Sonenscher draws on neglected aspects of eighteenth-century intellectual and political life and thought to demonstrate the importance of ideas for making connections between historical explanation and historical narrative. Concisely synthesizing a broad range of established scholarship, Sonenscher utilises new and fresh information to explore why using ideas as evidence adds a dimension of novelty, possibility, expectation and choice to the social, cultural and political history of the French Revolution.This is history about what was expected, but did not happen, and what was unexpected, but really did.

    Refine List

    Actions for selected content:

    Select all | Deselect all
    • View selected items
    • Export citations
    • Download PDF (zip)
    • Save to Kindle
    • Save to Dropbox
    • Save to Google Drive

    Save Search

    You can save your searches here and later view and run them again in "My saved searches".

    Please provide a title, maximum of 40 characters.
    Cancel
    ×

    Contents

    Contents
    References

    Metrics

    Altmetric attention score

    Full text views

    Total number of HTML views: 0
    Total number of PDF views: 0 *
    Loading metrics...

    Book summary page views

    Total views: 0 *
    Loading metrics...

    * Views captured on Cambridge Core between #date#. This data will be updated every 24 hours.

    Usage data cannot currently be displayed.

    Accessibility standard: WCAG 2.1 AA

    Why this information is here

    This section outlines the accessibility features of this content - including support for screen readers, full keyboard navigation and high-contrast display options. This may not be relevant for you.

    Accessibility Information

    The HTML of this book complies with version 2.1 of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), covering newer accessibility requirements and improved user experiences and achieves the intermediate (AA) level of WCAG compliance, covering a wider range of accessibility requirements.

    Content Navigation
    Table of contents navigation

    Allows you to navigate directly to chapters, sections, or non‐text items through a linked table of contents, reducing the need for extensive scrolling.

    Index navigation

    Provides an interactive index, letting you go straight to where a term or subject appears in the text without manual searching.

    Reading Order and Textual Equivalents
    Single logical reading order

    You will encounter all content (including footnotes, captions, etc.) in a clear, sequential flow, making it easier to follow with assistive tools like screen readers.

    Visual Accessibility
    Use of colour is not sole means of conveying information

    You will still understand key ideas or prompts without relying solely on colour, which is especially helpful if you have colour vision deficiencies.

    Structural and Technical Features
    ARIA roles provided

    You gain clarity from ARIA (Accessible Rich Internet Applications) roles and attributes, as they help assistive technologies interpret how each part of the content functions.