The Great Fear: Hysteria and Chaos of the French Revolution

What does a person feel on the eve of terrifying upheavals? The Great Fear, which swept over the people before the French Revolution, led to panic, paranoia, chaos that is beyond description. Hungry peasants flocking to the cities in search of work. Beggars asking for alms at the fortress walls. Countless rebellious crowds. All of this is a manifestation of the mass hysteria that engulfed France in the summer of 1789, yet the history of any major upheaval is much deeper than it seems at first glance. Behind the façade of uprisings always lie individual human destinies.

Prominent historian Georges Lefebvre describes the phenomenon of the French Revolution, conveying the full depth of the upheavals of ordinary people. Bringing the reader closer to the rebellious crowd, he makes them experience the same feelings and emotions to understand what people endured when they took up arms.