Books by Timothy Tackett

How did the French Revolution's ideals of liberty, equality, and fraternity descend into violence and terror? Timothy Tackett offers a new interpretation of this turning point in world history. Penetrating the mentality of Revolutionary elites on the eve of the Terror, he reveals how suspicion and mistrust escalated and helped propel their actions.

On a June night in 1791, King Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette fled Paris in disguise, hoping to escape the turmoil of the French Revolution. They were arrested by a group of citizens a few miles from Belgium and forced to return to Paris. Two years later they would both die at the guillotine. Tackett recounts this story in gripping novelistic style.