“To those who would change the world, the [French] Revolution still offers a script continuously elaborated and extended—in parliaments and prisons; in newspapers and manifestoes; in revolutions and repressions; in families, armies, and encounter groups. … To those who would interpret the world, it still presents the inexhaustible challenge of comprehending the nature of the extraordinary mutation that gave birth to the modern world.” — Keith Michael Baker and Steven Laurence Kaplan, “Editors’ Introduction,” in Hans-Jürgen Lüsebrink and Rolf Reichardt, The Bastille: A History of Symbol of Despotism and Freedom, trans. Norbert Schürer (Durham: Duke University Press, 1997), xiv.

This quote comes from our reading for this week’s graduate discussion in HIST 523 French Revolution and Napoleon.  See the book description at Duke University Press.