Robert Darnton is Carl H. Pforzheimer University Professor and University Librarian, Emeritus, Harvard University. The author of acclaimed, widely translated works in French history, he is a scholar of global stature, a Chevalier in the Legion d'Honneur and winner of the National Humanities Medal. He lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
A marvellously captivating book, sweeping in its range, depth and
erudition. Darnton traces the inexorable downfall of the old order
in the decades before 1789 through the maze of Parisian café
conversations, popular songs, festivals and street brawls, and
shows how the hatred of despotism and the love of liberty and
virtue became powerful revolutionary weapons. A towering
achievement, from one of the world's most eminent historians of
modern France.
*Sudhir Hazareesingh, author of Black Spartacus: The Epic Life of
Toussaint Louverture*
Distilling a lifetime's immersion in the literary world of
pre-revolutionary France, Robert Darnton's long-awaited final
verdict on the Revolution's origins lays out in vivid detail how
the minds of Parisians were prepared to contemplate the collapse of
the regime under which they lived. With unmatched knowledge of the
sources for metropolitan opinion as the monarchy stumbled into
ever-deeper crises, he shows how confidence ebbed away from
established ways and institutions and how by 1789 Parisians were
ready for everything to be recast. A final chapter surveys the
unprecedented scale and enduring importance of the Revolution that
followed.
*William Doyle, author of The Oxford History of the French
Revolution*
The Revolutionary Temper is more than a historical account of a
city at war with a regime; it is a hymn to the power of hope.
Darnton's sparkling prose and unique eye for the human detail in
every complex situation is in full force here. This is his best
work yet.
*Amanda Foreman, author of A World on Fire: An Epic History of Two
Nations Divided*
Standing at the summit of Robert Darnton's towering intellectual
career, The Revolutionary Temper plunges the reader into the
coffeeshops, workrooms, and alleys of pre-revolutionary Paris.
Following the traces of songs and rumors, insults and discontent,
Darnton allows us to eavesdrop, almost miraculously, on whispers
nearly two and a half centuries old. Here is the hivemind of
ordinary people in extraordinary times, as they shake loose the
thought and feeling of ages and past, and decide - slowly, and then
all at once - to begin the world anew.
*Jane Kamensky, author of A Revolution in Color*
What did Parisians think and gossip, sing and obsess about over the
decades before the storming of the Bastille? In The Revolutionary
Temper Robert Darnton paints a sumptuous mural of the
eighteenth-century mind. With the Encyclopédie, with manned
balloons in the air, reason seemed on a roll. With posters,
pamphlets, and public readings, the written world appeared supreme.
A few vicious libels, some stock market manipulation, a lurid
adultery trial, one notorious diamond necklace, any number of court
intrigues, skyrocketing bread prices and plunging temperatures
combined, among other elements, to shake a nation to its core. A
rich, beautifully crafted book that plants the reader in a Paris
that feels at all times electric.
*Stacy Schiff, author of The Revolutionary: Samuel Adams*
[Darnton] has become the internationally recognized doyen of
scholars working in the field of eighteenth-century French history
and culture ... Written in his strikingly clear prose, argued with
cogency, craft and conviction, and drawing on a lifetime of
distilled research ... The range and the variety of sources that
Darnton deploys to penetrate the Parisian "temper" is extremely
impressive ... He is a shrewd, observant, wise and unfailingly
entertaining guide through these dense, thought-provoking and
colourful thickets of Parisian experience.
*Times Literary Supplement*
The Revolutionary Temper is a richly researched, ambitious and
fascinating history ... delicate and revealing.
*Sunday Telegraph*
A riveting synthesis of Darnton's life work ... he writes
beautifully and has a weather eye for quirky detail.
*Spectator*
It’s difficult to summarise a book of such breadth… Short chapters
stand alone as delightfully intriguing stories about a society in
turmoil… This book is, quite simply, a feast, but one that, thanks
to superb storytelling, is easy to digest.
*The Times*
Darnton’s book is a very fine account of how 18th-century Parisians
received and interpreted public events, putting them on the road to
revolution.
*Financial Times*
Deep, rich and enthralling.
*Guardian*
This book is, quite simply, a feast.
*Sunday Times*
Robert Darnton is one of the world's greatest historians, and this
is an exceptional book ... each chapter brims with life and colour
... A titanic work.
*Sunday Times Books of the Year*
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