THE REVOLUTIONARY TEMPER

A page-turner on the 40 years before the fall of the Bastille.

The kings during this period were Louis XV and his grandson, Louis XVI, absolute monarchs whose rule was far from absolute, writes veteran historian Darnton, recipient of the National Humanities Medal and winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award. Despite an oppressive police force, Paris citizenry remained touchy, often disrespectful, and sometimes violent. Royal power also faced resistance from the Parlement, which was not a legislative body but an assembly that oversaw the courts and legal system. A law wasn’t official until Parlement published it, and it regularly used this power to express disagreement. Inevitably, wars dominated these decades. Following the War of the Austrian Succession, the Seven Years’ War was a disaster; victory supporting the American colonies seemed satisfying revenge over Britain but swelled an already massive debt. Wars are expensive, and since the church and aristocracy paid no taxes, they weighed heavily on the poor. Throughout this prodigiously researched narrative, Darnton concentrates on scandal and royal infighting, a reasonable tactic because kings preferred to leave the boring details of governing to underlings. The author accomplishes the impressive feat of bringing to vivid life these men, largely unknown to American readers, who were preoccupied with raising money. Reforms to require the church and aristocracy to contribute always failed, but borrowing was easy, so that’s what they did until 1787, when investors refused to subscribe to the latest loan. Declaring “partial bankruptcy,” officials cut interest payments, mostly to annuities that provided income to average citizens. This “produced outrage and panic” that was not relieved with news that the king would summon the Estates General, an ancient advisory body last called in 1614, which would, in theory, establish a constitution, reform the tax system, and regenerate France. It met two years later, and Darnton capably chronicles what followed, but riots and mass murder were already well under way.

The run-up to the French Revolution in expert hands.