Peter McPhee serves as a professorial fellow at the University of Melbourne, and is an internationally esteemed historian of modern France. He lives in Abbotsford, Australia.
"Richly detailed . . . finds way to both revivify and dissect the
revolutionary passions through not just Paris, but throughout
France, it’s colonies and eventually the rest of the world."—Ruth
Scurr, Financial Times
"McPhee . . . skillfully and with consummate clarity recounts one
of the most complex events in modern history. . . . [This]
extraordinary work is destined to be the standard account of the
French Revolution for years to come."—Publishers Weekly (starred
review)
"Articulate and perceptive. . . . Numerous histories of the French
Revolution exist; while many are good, none is so current on the
literature and lucidly presented as this. Scholars and history
lovers will rejoice."—David Keymer, Library Journal (starred
review)
"Any card-carrying historian must record with admiration Peter
McPhee’s remarkable mastery of the literature, the debates, and the
generations of interpretation about the French Revolution. . . .
McPhee’s splendid book — historiographically astute, sensitive to
moral as well as political and social positions, beautifully
written — provides a guide through the complexities of the
Revolution and reflects on its legacy."—Robert Aldrich, Australian
Book Review
"Peter McPhee’s bold and scrupulously researched book poses a
question not beforehand considered: just how French was the French
Revolution?"—Stuart Kelly, Scotland on Sunday
"This splendid and accessible synthesis, lavishly illustrated with
some striking visual images, will surely become the standard text
in English. . . . Succeeds in the daunting task of encompassing a
host of issues in a comprehensible fashion."—Malcolm Crook,
History
"Transforms our understanding of this epochal event, focusing
squarely on the importance of developments in the provinces while
offering a fluent and compelling narrative of the whole
catastrophe."—Jonathan Wright, Catholic Herald
“The great merit of Peter McPhee’ new synthesis is the weight it
gives to the earthy, even mundane, aspects of revolutionary
experience. . . McPhee offsets popular devotion to the
revolution with evidence of apathy, frustration and profanity.”—Tom
Stammers, LRB
“This brilliant essay charts the profound alterations in many
aspects of life, including the economy, the notion of citizenship
and meritocracy, and the place of women and religious minorities.
Relying on the latest scholarship, McPhee masters the complexity of
these areas to give a concrete picture of the extent of change. His
mastery of the historical literature deserves applause.” — Jack R.
Censer, American Historical Review
"Liberty or Death recounts the epic story of a people struggling to
give birth to the modern concepts of popular sovereignty, human
rights, religious toleration, equality before the law, the
abolition of slavery, and the beginnings of gender
equality. Rejecting the facile and antiquated view equating
the French Revolution with blood and violence, McPhee reveals a
nation tragically swept up in waves of fear and suspicion
engendered by the revolutionary process itself and by the violence
of the groups and foreign powers who sought to destroy all such
transformations. It is a masterful synthesis by one of the
world’s greatest specialists of the French Revolution."—Timothy
Tackett, author of When the King Took Flight
"Peter McPhee is a superb historian, and in my view this is the
finest full history of the French Revolution. McPhee carries
memorable description and thoughtful analysis beyond France and
Europe, presenting us with an intriguing, essential global
dimension, including the Caribbean. It is a significant and
absorbing book."—John Merriman, author of Massacre: The Life
and Death of the Paris Commune
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