Cambridge. 2008. Harvard University Press. 1st American Edition. Very Good in Dustjacket. 9780674032095. 540 pages. hardcover. Jacket art - Detail, Alfred Roll, 'The 14th of July 1880.'. keywords: History France French Revolution. FROM THE PUBLISHER - The dazzling allure of France throughout the nineteenth century made it one of the world's great cultural beacons: in art, technology, literature, and science, it renewed itself over and over again. And yet, behind this facade, France was a country wracked with anxiety, crushed by a sense of national decline and, above all, unable to resolve the chaotic legacy of the Revolution. For those who lived in the wake of the French Revolution, from the storming of the Bastille to Napoleon's final defeat, its aftermath left a profound wound that no subsequent king, emperor, or president could heal. CHILDREN OF THE REVOLUTION follows the ensuing generations who repeatedly tried and failed to come up with a stable regime after the trauma of 1789. The process encouraged fresh and often murderous oppositions between those who were for, and those who were against, the Revolution's values. Bearing the scars of their country's bloody struggle, and its legacy of deeply divided loyalties, the French lived the long nineteenth century in the shadow of the revolutionary age. Despite the ghosts raised in this epic tale, Robert Gildea has written a richly engaging and provocative book. His is a strikingly unfamiliar France, ...