Headless history : nineteenth-century French historiography of the Revolution

Linda Orr's Headless History investigates a variety of works by nineteenth-century French writers who attempted to address the major social and historical issues raised by the French Revolution. She discusses both prominent and neglected figures: Michelet, Tocqueville, Baudelaire, Flaubert, Lamartine, Thiers, Blanc, and Quinet. Orr points out that these writers worried in print about their own readership, their personal connection with the history they were writing about, and the predicaments of their time. She makes use of the personal elements in the narratives as a means of viewing nineteenth-century responses to issues that continue to concern-and confound-modern historians