A critical dictionary of the French Revolution /

The editors have assembled an extraordinary set of essays. Using five headings--events, actors, institutions and creations, ideas, and historians and commentators--Furet and Ozouf organize 99 entries, which range from the necessary such as "Marie Antoinette" or "Napoleon" to the fashionable such as "The Nation" or "Revolutionary Religion" to the less obvious like "National Borders" or "Vandalism." The work is anything but a traditional, objective historical dictionary because the authors set out to establish a profound coherence for matters still debated by contemporary historians. Usually, Furet and Ozouf succeed; one senses, however, that although they are often at pains to reject old dogmas, they may be using the encyclopedia/dictionary format to sanctify new ones. Editors Furet and Ozouf, who are known throughout the world as the most significant historians of the era, have authored almost half the entries, but other contributors, such as Denis Richet, Keith Baker, and Louis Bergeron, are almost as well known. The work contains many marvelous illustrations, including some color plates which further enhance it. Should be acquired by all public and academic libraries. -D. J. Cohen, College of Charleston

This work is sure to be compared to two other recent publications: John Paxton's Companion to the French Revolution (LJ 1/88) and Samuel F. Scott and Barry Rothaus's Historical Dictionary of the French Revolution, 1789-1799 ( LJ 2/15/85). Paxton's book contains hundreds of short entries. Scott/Rothaus and Furet/Ozouf's books, however, contain substantial essays written by numerous scholars. The main difference between the last two collections is that the volumes by Furet and Ozouf have a distinctly revisionist character. The 43 essays by Furet and Ozouf and the 56 contributed by other scholars all tend to stress the political and cultural dimensions of the Revolution, as opposed to the class-conflict interpretation of Marxist historians. The entries are grouped into five sections: events, actors, institutions and creations, ideas, and historians and commentators. The level of scholarship remains uniformly high, and nearly every entry contains a useful historiographical discussion. Recommended for most university and large public libraries.-- Thomas J. Schaeper, St. Bonaventure Univ., N.Y. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.