Simon Schama

In the following viewpoint Simon Schama asserts that the French Revolution did not significantly transform that nation’s society. According to Schama, the landed classes remained wealthy while the rural poor made virtually no economic advances. He also notes that the revolutionary governments did not solve the financial problems that had been associated with the monarchy. Schama concludes that upon Napoleon’s declaration in 1799 that the revolution had ended, the men who were poised to take power prior to 1789 were able to resume their march to power. Schama is a professor of history at Columbia University in New York City and the author of Citizens: A Chronicle of the French Revolution, the source of the following viewpoint.

Was the world of the village in 1799 so very different from what it had been...