The Guillotine and the Cross

Rating:
Summary: From Revolution to Regicide, then to Genocide
Review: A wit once remarked that any fool can make history, but only a great man can write one. I'm happy to say that this book proves Warren Carroll such a man. He covers in detail the start of the revolution proper, with the arrest of King Louis XVI, proceeding through the Terror and its aftermath. His style is gripping, telling history as it is meant to be--a living story of a once-alive past. I was especially glad to see a whole chapter devoted to the uprising in the Vendee; these royalists are rarely heard of in today's textbooks, and I myself had not heard of it until early this year. Carroll covers in detail the suppression of Catholicism, along with the slaughter of priests and the martyrdom of the Carmelite sisters upon the Guillotine.

I would only add that Carroll is an obvious sympathizer with the ancien regime, which may make uncomfortable those accustomed to republican sentiment. His work provokes one to wonder just how the American republic contrasted to the French version. This history proves that Republics are not immune from despots and mass murder.

Rating:
Summary: Carroll's Guillotine is Sharp!
Review: This book is well researched, organized, and written, but most of all it is INTERESTING to the highest degree! Read the compelling story of the wonderful Carmelite nuns of Compiegne! Highly recommended!!

Rating:
Summary: The TRUTH about the French Revolution
Review: This is a great book. It should be subtitled "The TRUTH about the French Revolution". Full of facts and dates, and heavily footnoted so that sources can be referenced, the author paints an indisputable picture of what the French Revolution really was: a chaotic bloodbath in which the Catholic Church and anyone associated with it was brutally persecuted. Carroll totally discounts the modern myth of the French Revolution as an event that simply brought France from monarchy to democracy, by inundating the reader with facts to the contrary; did you know that one of the first people to die in the guillotine was a newspaper reporter? So much for freedom of the press. My only complaint about this book is that it is so full of facts and dates it made it slow to read because I found myself wanting to take notes! This book is truly a powerful weapon for combatting the myths about the French Revolution. The description of the "field of screams" was chilling. Also disturbing was the scene where the animals pulling the death cart refused to enter the square where the guillotine was, because their senses were so repulsed by the blood-soaked ground.