The Revolutionary Temper

Standing at the summit of Robert Darnton's towering intellectual career, THE REVOLUTIONARY TEMPER plunges the reader into the coffeeshops, workrooms, and alleys of pre-revolutionary Paris. Following the traces of songs and rumors, insults and discontent, Darnton allows us to eavesdrop, almost miraculously, on whispers nearly two and a half centuries old. Here is the hivemind of ordinary people in extraordinary times, as they shake loose the thought and feeling of ages and past, and decide -- slowly, and then all at once -- to begin the world anew.