The French and Their Revolution: Selected Writings Book

Rather than write yet another biography of Robespierre or another examination of Girondists or Jacobins, Francophile Richard Cobb chose to spend most of his career writing social histories of Revolutionary France. These essays are broadly representative of his work, focusing on les petites gens, their influence on the revolution, and the revolution's influence on them. Several pieces provide wonderfully detailed portraits of the individuals inside the masses--within the army, the Sans-Culottes, or simply the common people. In the final essay, Cobb recounts the melancholy testimony of unwed mothers making a déclaration de grossesse to identify their seducer, request a place in the foundling hospital for their unborn children, or both, and points out that, for them, the revolution is not nearly as important as their unwanted pregnancies. Though the lengthy quotations in French, usually without translations, may dismay the non-Francophone, detailed footnotes and a thorough index make this collection valuable to anyone interested in the French Revolution. --C.B. DelaneyRead More