The Last Book I Read

As an Americanist historian, my knowledge of the events surrounding the French Revolution are fairly rudimentary: I recognize most of the key names and events, but they kind of all exist in a scramble in my head. Mark Steel's Vive Le Revolution has helped put some order to those facts, but more importantly suggested a way of thinking about the revolution in ways that make it, and especially its apparent excesses, relevant to contemporary events. That's an impressive achievement, especially given the book's subtitle: "A Stand-Up History" means Steel spends a lot of time making jokes about the whole thing. At first this was off-putting, and early on it seemed like the so-called comedy was kind of forced. But as I read on, it became clear that this was an effective technique for demonstrating just how much the revolution reflected the kinds of frustrations, complexities and human foibles that still plague our political institutions and processes. Beyond that, the book helps build the case (a very strong case) that the ideas and impulses behind the French Revolution remains powerful forces in shaping current perceptions and political activism in relation to issues like class, race, business, democracy, etc. I'm not so confident that Steel gets all the details right (I know there are mistakes in some of the biographical data he gives about Thomas Paine, for example), but that really is somewhat beside the point (and he provides a fine bibliographical essay at the end to point readers towards more academically-oriented sources). It's something of a Daily Show take on history, and while I wouldn't want that to be mistaken for the final, or complete, take on the subject, it makes for an entertaining and mostly informative entry into historical interpretation.