The French Revolution and Napolean

by Hazen, Charles Downer '89, Litt.D., '16. Henry Holt & Co.

Nothing could be more timely than a book on the French Revolution and Napoleon : we base our interpretation of the Russian Revolution and our prophecies of its future course on the French Revolution; we see in the aggressions of a modern military-mad state the same dangers that menaced Europe when Napoleon "picked up the crown of France with his sword." Nor can anyone who is familiar with Professor Hazen's Europe Since 1815 doubt his fitness for the task of giving us an interesting and illuminating account of those pregnant events which ushered in the historical epoch, the end of which we are now witnessing.

In his Modern European History, just published, Professor Hazen has revised and condensed his Europe Since1815, bringing it down to 1915, and to this has prefaced eleven chapters dealing with the period 1789-1815. It is these eleven chapters which have been brought together under the title, TheFrench Revolution and Napoleon. Intended primarily for use as a text-book, this volume does not deal with technical and recondite affairs, and it is, at the same time, free from dogmatic and stereotyped views. This is not, however, merely a book of facts. From his intimate knowledge of the period, Professor Hazen has been able so to collect and group his facts that he acts not only as narrator, but as guide and interpreter. He has no thesis to defend. But he has opinions to express. Above all, he has an easy, yet clear, incisive style, which carries us along whether we will or no.

For the general reader who wishes to gain an intelligent comprehension of that period when, as now, "civilization hung upon the arbitrament of the sword," for the student who wishes to lay the foundation for further investigation, there is no better book. To say this is to say that Professor Hazen has admirably succeeded in a difficult undertaking.

A.H.B.