Saturday was Bastille Day, the French holiday commemorating a pivotal moment of the French Revolution: The storming of the Bastille prison. But in addition to remembering the revolutionaries with a ...

1. The quality that makes Jules Michelet’s history so powerful is what the French call souffle—literally, breath; figuratively, inspiration, creativity, energy. Michelet understood the French ...

For centuries, historians have debated whether the “Great Fear” panic in the early days of the French Revolution was driven by the mass hysteria of ignorant peasants or a rational response to the ...

The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their ...

Mathematician and author, the Marquis de Condorcet (1743-1794) was an aristocrat who nevertheless embraced the early stage of the French Revolution. Even as the Jacobins hunted him down during the ...

Seeking a mandate from the French people for his policies, Louis XVI convened the Estates General. Events soon outran the king’s intentions.

Throughout the 18th century, France faced a mounting economic crisis. A rapidly growing population had outpaced the food supply. A severe winter in 1788 resulted in famine and widespread starvation in ...

When angry commoners stormed the Bastille in Paris on July 14, 1789, they struck a blow against one of the monarchy’s most forbidding symbols. The infamous prison no longer exists—it was destroyed in ...

About a year ago, I started what I intended to be an occasional series about landmark food-related moments in history. Then I forgot and, although Amanda and I have certainly written about food's role ...