Children of the Revolution.

Children of the Revolution: The French, 1799-1914. Robert Gildea. Allen Lane. [pounds sterling]30.00. xx + 540 pages. ISBN 978-0-713-99760-6. In this latest volume in the Penguin History of France, Prof. Gildea looks at the 'long' nineteenth century. He divides his coverage into two parts, 1799 to the Revolution of 1870 and 1870 to the outbreak of war. In his introduction the author emphasises the importance of five 'generations': those born between 1750 and 1770; those born about 1800 (the children of the Revolution); those born about 1830: those born about 1860: and those born about 1890. He argues that each generation had to come to terms with the legacy of a France divided by the Revolution as each lived through various 'regime changes' from republic to empire to Bourbon monarchy to Orleans monarchy to republic to empire to republic. In addition to chapters on politics and revolutions there are those on cultural topics, social changes, foreign relations, religion, the relationship between Paris and the rest of France, class structures and the role of women in French life. Prof. Gildea shows a France that was diverse and complex. To use a slang phrase, France was a country that spent a century trying to sort herself out. (M.J.A.)