The French Revolution and the Rise of Napoleon

Charles Dickens famously called the era of the French Revolution the best and worst of times.

For 10 years, from 1789 to 1799, France struggled to inaugurate a new European order based on the principles of liberty, equality, and fraternity.

In the process, men wrote constitutions, women marched for bread, politicians condemned innocent people to death, and a little Corsican general named Napoleon Bonaparte came to dominate the continent.

Read about this remarkable period of European history in The French Revolution and the rise of Napoleon.