Citizens by Simon Schama

I finished it! I finished it! Citizens by Simon Schama is a long, epic, detail-filled, 900-page overview of the first half of the French Revolution. That's right, 900 pages, and it ends with Robbespierre's execution. Napoleon is name-checked exactly once.

Don't get me wrong, it was well done, very thorough and I learned a TON about the forces and the people behind the revolution and why it happened. Its consequences, particularly the economic ones, were far reaching - at one point he says that the French GDP didn't hit pre-revolution levels until the mid-1800s.

The politics is fascinating, at a high level. While my eyes may have glazed over at some of the detail, the macro level of how the different groups worked together and turned on each other was both enlightening and scary (particularly at some of the sentences that could also apply to current US politics).

I'd recommend it, but it is a big thick history book. Be forewarned.