The Flight of the King from Paris was an event that shook the core of the revolution. Tackett is a great French Revolution historian and he does not disappoint here. The book is easy to read and stays on topic making you think about the idea of causality in the revolution. Tackett takes a great deal of time to explain how the flight of the king changed the opinion of the people in France. He does so very well and makes for a very interesting book. For those studying the revolution this is a much read about a crucial moment that changed the course of the revolution shifting it over to violence that had not been seen prior the flight of the king.

This book will be helpful for my graduate class and will help with my 10 grade students who I teach. It has some great information and isn't dry to read. The seller had the book to me faster than expected. The book has no bends, rips or tears and has minimal writing and highlighting which is great! I highly reccomend this seller and this book as well!

This is an excellent narrative of the King's attempted flight to the border in the midst of the French Revolution. Tackett is a first class historian with the ability to write well, and the episode has enough human interest to make this a very easy and lively read. Tackett's thesis that this was a turning point in history is not entirely convincing. He does demonstrate that the King remained quite popular until his flight, and the episode was disastrous for his credibility. Since he was conspiring with foreign enemies, his ultimate execution is not the tragedy portrayed in Burkean histories of the era.

However, I'm not convinced that the episode singularly turned history away from the revolution devolving into a stable constitutional monarchy. It would have taken an extraordinary leader and adept politician for a King to have steered history into this direction. And had Louis XVI been such a figure, the Estates General would not have been called in the first place.

The revolution had a momentum all its own and doomed the monarchy. His flight did not doom him immediately, and his demise played out over time -- and probably would have done so even in the absence of his flight. But this was one important episode, which combined with others, led to the monarchy's downfall.

I choose these rating because when I visited Varenes in France I decided to find a book in wich I could find out what happend. I can only say, to visit a historical place and than to read about events that is the greatest thing. But the story must be well written and so I can only recommand these book to all interested in history full of intrigues and games and final in destiny of those peaople who in crucial moment shows only their weakest points and ruins theirs and other lives. Sorry but king Luis the XVI was such a weak man.But in history of mankind other follows and their bad decisions had bad folows in historicall events .

Fascinating account of this dramatic point in history. Dr Tackett's writing makes for an easy, enjoyable and exciting read.

Will be looking for more of his works.

Wonderful re-intro to hows and whys of that era.

This book is a cross between scholarly and pop history, leaning more toward the former. But it's so beautifully written and well organized, with a fascinating topic, that anyone with even slight interest in history would probably enjoy it.

Tackett opens the book with the amazing story of the abrupt end to the flight of King Louis XVI and his family. They were stopped in Varennes as they tried to pass through on their way out of the country during the third year of the French Revolution. Later Tackett details all that went into planning the escape, which is one of the most fascinating moments of the Revolution.

But the ramifications and aftermath of this attempted escape are even more important, and Tackett does a reasonable job explaining why. However, this is the one area where he falls a bit short. He argues that the king's flight and the aftermath led to the Terror, but he didn't spend enough time explaining why, which is surprising since that seemed to be a main part of his thesis. Nevertheless, it's a great read and highly recommended.

A wonderful book. Reads like fiction with fascinating details. I'd recommend for anyone who likes history, nonfiction, historical fiction, or French culture.

read this alongside Mark Steel's Vive La Revolution! - history as a comedy of errors, but here told deadpan straight. this is a textbook lesson in how to take a brief, factual, well-documented episode in history and tell it like it was, with just the right amount of context, leaving it to the reader to goggle at the sheer improbability of it all. Tackett is an obscure American prof (no previous books listed in this one), it's as if he stumbled onto this incredible tale by chance, and has written it up lie a term essay with the wide-eyed innocence of a child of the French Enlightenment - a Candide. I only tracked this book down by googling Flight to Varennes, on a tip-off from Mark Steel. Scotland's greatest recently-living artist Ian Hamilton Finlay erected a signpost to it, but mis-recalled it as Vincennes, to add a little piquancy.

Deeply researched and well-written text, excellent analysis of the historic implication of King Louis XVI's drama at Varennes for the French revolution. But, alas, what a shoddy, disappointing Kindle edition of this great book: No illustration whatsoever (Kindle-readers are referred to the printed edition). Fantastic, Amazon! So do I buy the book twice? Why do you give us Kindle with high resolution displays, if you won't let us have illustrated books? Makes no sense to me... Even worse:the links for numerous,highly informative footnotes do not work. If you touch the link, nothing happens.

This book is definitely worth reading, but the shoddy Kindle edition is not worth the money... Just buy the printed book instead.