This is the second of a three-volume series on the French Revolution, which aims to provide a synthesis of research and to highlight controversies. The Jacobin Republic was the most difficult and dangerous phase of the Revolution, when events begun in 1789 reached their climax. The Republic was brief, barely two years, but it put up a victorious struggle against the armies of the European Coalition and against the forces of the counter-revolution. However, the period also includes such grim events as the execution of Louis XVI and his queen, Marie Antoinette, the crushing rule of the revolutionary government, and the 'Terror' in Paris and in the provinces; and the eventual bloody collapse of the Jacobin dictatorship. Marc Bouloiseau brings a revisionist's eye to bear on the period. His extensive researches and careful analyses reveal an essentially rural nation divided by its structure, its day-to-day habits, its aspirations, and confronted by the harsh realities of war.
