the French Revolution: Power, Terror, and Fall of Monarchy

France entered 1789 as one of Europe's greatest powers. Within four years, its ancient monarchy had fallen, its king had been executed, and a revolution launched in the name of liberty had descended into terror.The French Revolution places the upheaval itself on trial. Across twelve sharply focused cases, Gordon J. MacKenzie examines the institutions, decisions, and personalities that drove France from financial crisis to regicide: the Old Regime, Louis XVI, the Estates-General, the National Assembly, the power of Paris, the Church, Varennes, war, the overthrow of the monarchy, the king's execution, the Terror, and Robespierre.Using the structure of charge, evidence, consequence, and verdict, this book asks not simply what happened, but who bears responsibility and why compromise failed. Neither a celebration nor a blanket condemnation, it offers an accessible, balanced account of how reform became revolution, fear became policy, and the struggle to destroy the old order reshaped the modern world.