Books, interesting modern history
Aug. 17th, 2008 08:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hawkwing_lbBooks 2008: 104, non-fiction
104. Munro Price, The Perilous Crown: France between Revolutions 1814-1848.
I'd never read anything about the Bourbon restoration (1814-1830) or the Orléanist monarchy (1830-1848) in France before I picked up this book. Intellectually I knew there had to be something between the First Republic and First Empire and the Second Empire and Third Republic periods (another republic, if nothing else) but I hadn't the first clue what that was.
Well, now I do.
This is a very interesting book. Drawing on a number of private and published papers, including those of Louis-Philippe, duc d'Orléans and later king of France, and his sister, Adélaide, Price puts into context the interesting thirty-four year period that was France's experiment with limited (not quite 'constitutional') monarchy. Price's main focus is Louis-Philippe and Adélaide and the Orléanist monarchy: out of eleven chapters, only about three to three and a half concentrate on the Bourbon kings, Louis XVIII and Charles X.
Price treats his main subjects with great sympathy, perhaps too great. (It seems a common failing among biographers to avoid extensive analysis of their subjects' flaws, and for all this is a history of France, at times it reads more like a biography of Louis-Philippe et famille). This is, however, only a mild criticism: it's fairly evident that both Louis-Philippe and Adélaide were somewhat remarkable people, and that there's enough material in the period to fill a dozen books, at least.
(You have to wonder, too, what might've happened in 1848 if Ferdinand-Philippe, duc d'Orléans and Louis-Philippe's heir, hadn't cracked his head open in a carriage accident in 1842.)
It's certainly a compelling and very readable introduction to the period, and if I longed for a just a little more analysis... well, it seems I say that a lot. It appears not every historian is a Marcus Rediker or a Sarah B. Pomeroy or a Martin Goodman, alas.
#
Next up in the not-ancient history reading (straight from the bargain basement!): Adam Zamoyski, Holy Madness: Romantics, Patriots and Revolutionaries, 1776-1871. The preface does not encourage me to hope for analysis, but the subject matter should at least prove fertile ground for more damned b&!k ideas.
104. Munro Price, The Perilous Crown: France between Revolutions 1814-1848.
I'd never read anything about the Bourbon restoration (1814-1830) or the Orléanist monarchy (1830-1848) in France before I picked up this book. Intellectually I knew there had to be something between the First Republic and First Empire and the Second Empire and Third Republic periods (another republic, if nothing else) but I hadn't the first clue what that was.
Well, now I do.
This is a very interesting book. Drawing on a number of private and published papers, including those of Louis-Philippe, duc d'Orléans and later king of France, and his sister, Adélaide, Price puts into context the interesting thirty-four year period that was France's experiment with limited (not quite 'constitutional') monarchy. Price's main focus is Louis-Philippe and Adélaide and the Orléanist monarchy: out of eleven chapters, only about three to three and a half concentrate on the Bourbon kings, Louis XVIII and Charles X.
Price treats his main subjects with great sympathy, perhaps too great. (It seems a common failing among biographers to avoid extensive analysis of their subjects' flaws, and for all this is a history of France, at times it reads more like a biography of Louis-Philippe et famille). This is, however, only a mild criticism: it's fairly evident that both Louis-Philippe and Adélaide were somewhat remarkable people, and that there's enough material in the period to fill a dozen books, at least.
(You have to wonder, too, what might've happened in 1848 if Ferdinand-Philippe, duc d'Orléans and Louis-Philippe's heir, hadn't cracked his head open in a carriage accident in 1842.)
It's certainly a compelling and very readable introduction to the period, and if I longed for a just a little more analysis... well, it seems I say that a lot. It appears not every historian is a Marcus Rediker or a Sarah B. Pomeroy or a Martin Goodman, alas.
#
Next up in the not-ancient history reading (straight from the bargain basement!): Adam Zamoyski, Holy Madness: Romantics, Patriots and Revolutionaries, 1776-1871. The preface does not encourage me to hope for analysis, but the subject matter should at least prove fertile ground for more damned b&!k ideas.
