France

“It is time that the abuse of his enemies should be appreciated in its true light, and not accepted as impartial history merely because they happened to be distinguished men.” By Theodore Zeldin.

Born on the banks of the Rhone, this enlightened French missionary was the first European to carry out a comprehensive survey of the manners and customs of the Hindus. Roderick Cameron describes how the book that he wrote, which he published with the encouragement of the British East India Company, remains a classic in its own field.

No other leader of the French Revolution held the centre of the revolutionary stage so long as Robespierre. George Rudé portrays him as its personification and guiding spirit — a man of lofty aspirations, though according to the popular legend a fanatical man of blood.

The legend that Babeuf had created and the doctrines of Babouvism became a powerful force in nineteenth-century Europe. W.J. Fishman writes how, among those whom it inspired, were the authors of the Bolshevik Revolution.

“Treat the Pope as though he had an army of 200,000 men"—Napoleon. By E.E.Y. Hales.

The decade before the Nazi occupation was a period of bitter division in France, raising questions about the nature of French fascism.

Widespread fever followed military sloth, writes Antony Brett-James, and the fiasco on Walcheren brought down the tottering British Government.

Though he didn't invent it, the guillotine was named for a French doctor, who died on 26 March 1814.

Throughout the Terror in 1793-94, writes Vera Watson, the British Government were being supplied with detailed reports on French Cabinet meetings. Who was the Spy among the thirteen members of the Committee of Public Safety?

During 1870-1871, the France of the Second Empire underwent one of those catastrophes from which nations strangely re-arise to greatness.