VOICES OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION

A visually stunning, panoramic history of the French Revolution. Of the several books published this year to celebrate next year's bicentennial of the Revolution, this is the most immediately gripping as editors Cobb (The French Revolutionary Armies, Paris and Its Provinces, etc.) and Jones (Hospitals and Social Welfare in Early Modern France, etc.) interweave their clear but erudite text with hundreds of extracts from police documents, diaries, letters, and newspaper reports as well as 100 color and 100 black-and-white photographs, cartoons, and engravings (all seen, and many of which drape across opposing pages). This is state-of-the-art archival history, handsome and deeply informative.