Not a bad book exactly but has some frustrating inadequacies as a single volume history. There's a deliberate decision to focus a lot on what's happening outside of Paris but it means the writing is spread way too thin. A lot of key events are just sort of glossed over and there's no real sense of how the Convention went through so many political changes. For example, the narrative sort of displays the Jacobins at the height of their power, doesn't really show any significant opposition... then Thermidor happens, Robespierre is killed and suddenly everyone has changed their views within a page. There's not even an attempt at explaining what on earth happened. Just a sudden switch. The other major events get similar treatment.

The focus on how the provinces reacted to what happened in Paris is a logical choice but because his explanation of what happened in Paris is so thin, even in terms of just the basic facts, a lot of the time you don't have the context to understand why X town is doing what it is. A lot of random stories and details about single small settlements are included but they don't form a cohesive whole or give you an understanding of how X broad area of France reacted. When useful statistics are introduced which give you an idea of opinion past anecdotes, they're still hard to interpret - for example if x% of priests in y area were non jurors, I have no idea what the size of y area is or where it is because I'm not familiar with the administrative geography of Revolutionary France!

Neither of these make the book bad exactly but I just keep feeling like I'm missing key information or it's just assumed I'll know it. There's lots of interesting stuff but I'm missing a big picture understanding of lots of stuff too ( )

A thorough and insightful examination of the subject. I particularly appreciated the attention given to the roles of women, religious factions (both minority religions and splits in the Catholic church), and the slaves in the colonies. ( )