1st Edition

Britain and the French Revolution

By Clive Emsley Copyright 2000
    142 Pages
    by Routledge

    142 Pages
    by Routledge

    The French Revolution catapulted Europe into a new period of political upheaval, social change, and into the modern era.

    This book provides a concise introduction to the impact of the French Revolution on Britain and to the ways in which this impact has been assessed by historians.

    The book is organised thematically. It begins with a survey of the ideological debate sparked off by the Revolution discussing, in particular, the work of people such as Burke, Paine, Spence and Wollstonecraft. From here it presents an exploration of the Revolution s impact on

    * Parliamentary polities
    * The growth of radicalism and loyalism
    * The way in which French ideas influenced Irish aspirations to generate rebellion

    The third main section of the book focuses on the causes and course of Britain s war with Revolutionary France, and on the effects of the war on the home front, most notably the recurrent, serious food shortages.

    An Introduction to the Series VI Note on Referencing System Vll Acknowledgements Vlll PART ONE: INTRODUCTION 1 1. ISSUES AND HISTORIOGRAPHY 3 PART TWO: ANALYSIS 7 2. IDEAS 9 Burke and Paine 9 Radical Variations 13 Loyalist Responses 17 3. POLITICS 21 Whigs and Others 21 Radicals and Repression 29 Loyalism and Xenophobia 40 The Irish Experience 46 4. WAR 53 Causes and Course 53 Men, Money and Munitions 58 Famine 65 PART THREE: CONCLUSION 71 PART FOUR: DOCUMENTS 77 Who's Who 110 Bibliography 117 Index

    Biography

    Clive Emsley is Professor of History at the Open University and one of the two General Editors for the Seminar Studies in History Series.