This history of the French Revolution of 1789 has been published to mark the bicentenary of its outbreak and draws on a generation of extensive research and scholarly debate to reappraise this greatest of all revolutions, and its impact upon France and Europe. Opening with the accession of Louis XVI in 1774, it traces the history of France through revolution, terror and counter-revolution, to the triumph of Napoleon in 1802. The author 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.