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DAILY MAIL
'An irreverent romp through the Gallic uprising...illuminating and funny'
OBSERVER
'A great read. Smart, comic non-fiction is clearly the future'
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Any fan of Mark Steel's superb lectures on radio 4 will know exactly what they hope to get from this book - and they get it in spades. Vive La Revolution is an intelligent history of...the French Revolution, but delivered with Mark Steel's superb eye for the hilarious modern parallel. That's it folks - you get a very comprehensive look back at the characters, major themes, inconsistencies, injustices and popular misconceptions about this chapter of history, and will laugh out loud whilst doing so.
Steel is enthusiastic, knowledgable, even-handed and indeed challenging as a straight historian - like George MacDonald Fraser's 'Flashman' books, this book will teach you a lot about the facts of given period. Like Flashman, it's also hugely entertaining and plain funny with his ability to seize upon and illuminate the mundane and bizarre quirks of huge historical figures (in this sense it's very much like Monty Python's 'Life of Brian').
Throughout the book every point is illustrated by comparing it with a modern day equivalent. These analogies becomes a little formulaic if I'm honest (his comparison of interesting, high risk Revolutionary politicans with modern banal, zero-risk New Labour counterparts) - it's what the humour of the book depends upon but it does not become tiresome, even if it does become a little predictable.
One highlight was Napolean...Steel pointed out that in the latter stages of his rule, Bonaparte relied upon the advice of a small imagined red genie...but in the end started ignoring even that...
20 of 21 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Mark Steel's book manages the difficult trick of being both highly informative (he convincingly explains the importance of the French Revolution in shaping the modern world) and also very funny (on many occasions I found myself laughing out loud). While telling the story, he takes on conventional historians for their dubious assumptions about the causes of events. (Discussing those, especially Sharma, who seem to believe that the whole thing was caused by the agitation of a few thousand zealots, he observes: 'Revolutionary action does usually involve a committed minority, but that applies to state-led action as well. The difference is that then the minority become official heros. After the Battle of Britain, Winston Churchill didn't say, "Oh typical, just a handful of activists with big mouths and Spitfires."')
With amusing and sometimes self-depreciating anecdotes about his experiences in various left wing groups, this is definitely a good read. My only criticism is that some of the analogies he makes with modern events are so specific to the UK in the early 2000s, that readers from other parts of the world, or ten years hence, are bound to miss some of the jokes. Highly recommended for anyone who is a victim of modern historical education, and wants to know what the Revolution was really about.
With amusing and sometimes self-depreciating anecdotes about his experiences in various left wing groups, this is definitely a good read. My only criticism is that some of the analogies he makes with modern events are so specific to the UK in the early 2000s, that readers from other parts of the world, or ten years hence, are bound to miss some of the jokes. Highly recommended for anyone who is a victim of modern historical education, and wants to know what the Revolution was really about.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I bought this book not because I would claim to have had any prior interested in the French Revolution- I didn't- but because it was Mark Steel, who I know of because of his TV appearances, and because I found it cheap. I got a bargain.
I find it very difficult to find the relevance of a lot of historical events to our everyday modern lives, and that's precisely what Mark Steel's got that everything else I've had seems to lack. The relevance and cutting analogies to modern-day politicians really bring an amazing subject and the major twists and turns to life, where other historical accounts have managed to belittle the French Revolution into just one big festival of violence that the civilised world doesn't like to talk about.
Oh, and if that weren't enough, in parts it's so funny you drop the book.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
if only all history was told like this
As I expected this book was exactly what i was looking for. I wanted to understand the history of the French Revolution, who the main characters were and how things happened... Read more
Published 15 months ago by S. L. Stewart
Unconventional history book
Mark Steel leads through the French Revolution as if it had happened yesterday. He goes into levels of detail to illustrate some points, making it an exciting read. Read more
Published 20 months ago by Oliver Völckers
Lighten up! It's only History/Humour/Polemic....
Oh dear! the last reviewer seems to have had a sense of humour bypass - common among those on the political right, I find. Read more
Published on 16 Sep 2008 by PaulB
Ideologically Motivated Rubbish
Mark Steel, tedious media lefty bigmouth and unfunny "comedian", has written a marvelous history book aimed at stupid people. Read more
Published on 8 Dec 2007 by Emilio Mestiga
Hilarious and informative, but not entirely accurate.
It's tempting to reiterate what many reviewers have said before me - this is a very funny and informative history of the revolution. Read more
Published on 5 Sep 2007 by Xue Baochai
A history book I read till the end!
I buy a lot of non-fiction books that sit on my shelves looking interesting but going unread, or that I start and then drift away from. Read more
Published on 9 Aug 2007 by RR
Read this and rekindle your enthusiasm for history.
The study of history is important because it places modern day events in context and allows us to make better judgements. Read more
Published on 17 Oct 2006 by GJ Parnell
A very, very funny look at the French Revolution.
Mark Thomas is unashamedly left wing, and the main reason for his writing this book was that he wants to right a perceived wrong - he wants to tell the readers why he thinks that... Read more
Published on 11 April 2006 by Simon Grayson
Steel's sharper than scharma
Simon scharma this ain't. Thank god. Anyone who wants to understand our history (if we don't we can never understand our present) and anyone who likes comedy with a left leaning... Read more
Published on 25 Mar 2004 by Arkady Hughes
If only all history books were as easy to read
A very enjoyable and accessible book on the French Revolution. Definitely worth a look for anyone remotely interested in this subject. Read more
Published on 14 Jan 2004
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