This new edition of the most authoritative, comprehensive history of the French Revolution of 1789 draws on a generation of extensive research and scholarly debate to reappraise the most famous of all revolutions. Updates for this second edition include a generous chronology of events, plus an extended bibliographical essay providing an examination of the historiography of the Revolution. Opening with the accession of Louis XVI in 1774, the book traces the history of France through revolution, terror, and counter-revolution, to the triumph of Napoleon in 1802, and analyses the impact of events both in France itself and the rest of Europe. William Doyle shows how a movement which began with optimism and general enthusiasm soon became a tragedy, not only for the ruling orders, but for the millions of ordinary people all over Europe whose lives were disrupted by religious upheaval, and civil and international war. It was they who paid the price for the destruction of the old political order and the struggle to establish a new one, based on the ideals of liberty and revolution, in the face of widespread indifference and hostility.

威廉•多伊爾（William Doyle），生於1942年，英國著名曆史學傢，布裏斯托大學曆史學教授，英國社會科學院院士，法國大革命史研究會董事。主要研究18世紀法國史，尤其關注法國大革命史研究。著有《歐洲舊秩序》、《法國大革命的起源》、《舊製度》、《革命時代的貴族及其敵人》等。