The French Revolution: A History
The French Revolution: A History was written by the Scottish essayist, historian and philosopher Thomas Carlyle. The three-volume work, first published in 1837, charts the course of the French Revolution from 1789 to the height of the Reign of Terror (1793–94) and culminates in 1795. A massive undertaking which draws together a wide variety of sources, Carlyle's history—despite the unusual style in which it is written—is considered to be an authoritative account of the early course of the Revolution.
Title page of the first English edition
A Japanese illustration of Carlyle's horror at the burning of the original manuscript of The French Revolution
A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all history in time. Some historians are recognized by publications or training and experience. "Historian" became a professional occupation in the late nineteenth century as research universities were emerging in Germany and elsewhere.
Herodotus (c. 484 – c. 425 BC) was a Greek historian who lived in the fifth century BC and one of the earliest historians whose work survives.
Reproduction of part of a tenth-century copy of Thucydides's History of the Peloponnesian War.
Leonardo Bruni (c. 1370–1444), the historian who first divided history into the three eras of Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and Modern times.
A page of Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People
