French Revolution Catholic clergy of the established church. Some historians hold something similar to what Thomas Jefferson proclaimed: that France had "been awakened by our [American] Revolution." Demands for change were formulated in terms of Enlightenment ideals and contributed to the convocation of the Estates General in May 1789. During the first year of the Revolution, members of the Third Estate (commoners) took control, the Bastille was attacked in July, the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen was passed in August, and a group of women marched on Versailles that forced the royal court back to Paris in
The Age of Revolution: Europe 1789–1848 The Age of Revolution: Europe 1789–1848 The Age of Revolution: Europe: 1789–1848 is a book by Eric Hobsbawm, first published in 1962. It is the first in a trilogy of books about "the long 19th century" (coined by Hobsbawm), followed by "", and "". A fourth book, "The Age of Extremes: The Short Twentieth Century, 1914–1991", acts as a sequel to the trilogy. Hobsbawm analysed the early 19th century, and indeed the whole process of modernisation thereafter, using what he calls the "twin revolution thesis". This thesis recognised the dual importance of the French Revolution and the Industrial Revolution as