J. M. Thompson (1) (1878–1956)
Autore di Robespierre and the French Revolution
Per altri autori con il nome J. M. Thompson, vedi la pagina di disambiguazione.
Sull'Autore
J.M. Thompson was Tutorial Fellow in Modern History at Magdalen College, Oxford, and University Lecturer in French History.
Opere di J. M. Thompson
Opere correlate
Etichette
Informazioni generali
- Nome legale
- Thompson, James Matthew
- Data di nascita
- 1878
- Data di morte
- 1956
- Sesso
- male
- Nazionalità
- UK
- Organizzazioni
- Magdelen College, Oxford University
Utenti
Recensioni
Robespierre di J. M. Thompson
Thompson displays a little too much admiration for the subject for my taste.
If my reading habits this year were a series of Doctor Who, then the recurring theme would probably be the French Revolution. It's central to [b:Les Misérables|2225130|Les Misérables|Victor Hugo|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1222130242s/2225130.jpg|3208463], is the real antagonist of [b:A Tale of Two Cities|6558596|A Tale of Two Cities|Charles Dickens|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1245487246s/6558596.jpg|2956372], and lurks at the beginning of all things in [b:War and Peace|10752432|War and Peace|Leo Tolstoy|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1299673971s/10752432.jpg|4912783]. To a lesser extent it also figures in [b:The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet|8720194|The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet|David Mitchell|http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51rI19dDYYL._SL75_.jpg|7405757] and even [b:Map of a Nation|12532839|Map of a Nation|Rachel Hewitt|http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/513LsIBsJ9L._SL75_.jpg|14225764] (the Ordnance Survey ostensibly began in 1791, partially through fears that revolutionary France might seek to invade England's poorly mapped southern coast). For all that, though, I really didn't know much about the Revolution. Sure, Victor Hugo had waxed lyrical about its heroes and waxed wroth about its villains, but they were just so many names without faces or stories.
Leaders of the French Revolution may not have been the best introduction to this part of history — it readily assumes fairly thorough knowledge of the events of the 1790s and was written in 1923 so presumably a fuller picture now exists than is painted by Thompson within the book. But despite those problems the book is well written and at least gives an insight into the men behind the names.
As the title suggests the book concerns itself with some of the key men involved in the Revolution. Thompson is a historian's historian, eschewing any source that isn't primary or untainted by bias. As such the chapters on each of the men is quite short, eleven men's lives are covered in rather less than three hundred pages, and that with some overlap since these men plotted and worked with and against one another. But then these men rarely had long lives — only three of the eleven lived to see the end of the Revolution in 1799, two in exile and one instigating the coup d'etat that saw Napoleon's rise to power. The rest of them find themselves on an unhappy conveyor belt heading towards the guillotine, oftentimes managing to wrestle a fellow politician to the front of the queue, only to realise that puts themselves second in line. Thompson disagrees that the Terror was really that terrifying for the majority of the population, but for the politicians it really was a fatal game. To lead the Revolution was to proscribe your political enemies before they proscribed you. And proscription in Revolutionary France almost always meant an appointment with "Madame Guillotine".… (altro)
Leaders of the French Revolution may not have been the best introduction to this part of history — it readily assumes fairly thorough knowledge of the events of the 1790s and was written in 1923 so presumably a fuller picture now exists than is painted by Thompson within the book. But despite those problems the book is well written and at least gives an insight into the men behind the names.
As the title suggests the book concerns itself with some of the key men involved in the Revolution. Thompson is a historian's historian, eschewing any source that isn't primary or untainted by bias. As such the chapters on each of the men is quite short, eleven men's lives are covered in rather less than three hundred pages, and that with some overlap since these men plotted and worked with and against one another. But then these men rarely had long lives — only three of the eleven lived to see the end of the Revolution in 1799, two in exile and one instigating the coup d'etat that saw Napoleon's rise to power. The rest of them find themselves on an unhappy conveyor belt heading towards the guillotine, oftentimes managing to wrestle a fellow politician to the front of the queue, only to realise that puts themselves second in line. Thompson disagrees that the Terror was really that terrifying for the majority of the population, but for the politicians it really was a fatal game. To lead the Revolution was to proscribe your political enemies before they proscribed you. And proscription in Revolutionary France almost always meant an appointment with "Madame Guillotine".… (altro)
If my reading habits this year were a series of Doctor Who, then the recurring theme would probably be the French Revolution. It's central to [b:Les Misérables|2225130|Les Misérables|Victor Hugo|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1222130242s/2225130.jpg|3208463], is the real antagonist of [b:A Tale of Two Cities|6558596|A Tale of Two Cities|Charles Dickens|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1245487246s/6558596.jpg|2956372], and lurks at the beginning of all things in [b:War and Peace|10752432|War and Peace|Leo Tolstoy|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1299673971s/10752432.jpg|4912783]. To a lesser extent it also figures in [b:The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet|8720194|The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet|David Mitchell|http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51rI19dDYYL._SL75_.jpg|7405757] and even [b:Map of a Nation|12532839|Map of a Nation|Rachel Hewitt|http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/513LsIBsJ9L._SL75_.jpg|14225764] (the Ordnance Survey ostensibly began in 1791, partially through fears that revolutionary France might seek to invade England's poorly mapped southern coast). For all that, though, I really didn't know much about the Revolution. Sure, Victor Hugo had waxed lyrical about its heroes and waxed wroth about its villains, but they were just so many names without faces or stories.
Leaders of the French Revolution may not have been the best introduction to this part of history — it readily assumes fairly thorough knowledge of the events of the 1790s and was written in 1923 so presumably a fuller picture now exists than is painted by Thompson within the book. But despite those problems the book is well written and at least gives an insight into the men behind the names.
As the title suggests the book concerns itself with some of the key men involved in the Revolution. Thompson is a historian's historian, eschewing any source that isn't primary or untainted by bias. As such the chapters on each of the men is quite short, eleven men's lives are covered in rather less than three hundred pages, and that with some overlap since these men plotted and worked with and against one another. But then these men rarely had long lives — only three of the eleven lived to see the end of the Revolution in 1799, two in exile and one instigating the coup d'etat that saw Napoleon's rise to power. The rest of them find themselves on an unhappy conveyor belt heading towards the guillotine, oftentimes managing to wrestle a fellow politician to the front of the queue, only to realise that puts themselves second in line. Thompson disagrees that the Terror was really that terrifying for the majority of the population, but for the politicians it really was a fatal game. To lead the Revolution was to proscribe your political enemies before they proscribed you. And proscription in Revolutionary France almost always meant an appointment with "Madame Guillotine".… (altro)
Leaders of the French Revolution may not have been the best introduction to this part of history — it readily assumes fairly thorough knowledge of the events of the 1790s and was written in 1923 so presumably a fuller picture now exists than is painted by Thompson within the book. But despite those problems the book is well written and at least gives an insight into the men behind the names.
As the title suggests the book concerns itself with some of the key men involved in the Revolution. Thompson is a historian's historian, eschewing any source that isn't primary or untainted by bias. As such the chapters on each of the men is quite short, eleven men's lives are covered in rather less than three hundred pages, and that with some overlap since these men plotted and worked with and against one another. But then these men rarely had long lives — only three of the eleven lived to see the end of the Revolution in 1799, two in exile and one instigating the coup d'etat that saw Napoleon's rise to power. The rest of them find themselves on an unhappy conveyor belt heading towards the guillotine, oftentimes managing to wrestle a fellow politician to the front of the queue, only to realise that puts themselves second in line. Thompson disagrees that the Terror was really that terrifying for the majority of the population, but for the politicians it really was a fatal game. To lead the Revolution was to proscribe your political enemies before they proscribed you. And proscription in Revolutionary France almost always meant an appointment with "Madame Guillotine".… (altro)
This book was written in the mid-1950s, and thus predates a number of trends in biography. While it is a serviceable narrative of events in the life of Louis Napoleon, it doesn't really go into any significant depth or analysis as to the reason behind events. A good backgrounder, but not much more.
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Statistiche
- Opere
- 12
- Opere correlate
- 1
- Utenti
- 312
- Popolarità
- #75,595
- Voto
- 3.6
- Recensioni
- 5
- ISBN
- 47
- Lingue
- 2