The French Revolution: How a Kingdom Fell and a New World Began | History for Sleep

Fall asleep to the complete story of the French Revolution—a decade in which financial crisis, food scarcity, political reform, war, and popular rebellion brought down the Bourbon monarchy and transformed the meaning of citizenship, rights, and revolution. Beginning in the uneasy streets of Paris on July fourteenth, seventeen eighty-nine, this calm historical documentary moves backward to explore the unequal society of the Old Regime, the monarchy’s growing debt, the bread crisis, Enlightenment ideas, and the political deadlock that forced Louis the Sixteenth to summon the Estates-General. The journey then follows the Tennis Court Oath, the storming of the Bastille, the Great Fear, the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, and the Women’s March on Versailles. It examines the attempted constitutional monarchy, the religious division caused by the Civil Constitution of the Clergy, the Flight to Varennes, the war against Austria and Prussia, and the birth of the French Republic. The documentary also explores the execution of Louis the Sixteenth and Marie Antoinette, the Vendée civil war, the Girondins and Montagnards, the political influence of the sans-culottes, the Committee of Public Safety, Robespierre, and the institutions of the Reign of Terror. Beyond Paris, it connects the Revolution to Saint-Domingue, the Haitian Revolution, and France’s abolition of colonial slavery in seventeen ninety-four. The final years follow the fall of Robespierre, the Thermidorian Reaction, the unstable Directory, Napoleon Bonaparte’s military rise, and the coup of the Eighteenth of Brumaire in seventeen ninety-nine. History Told Softly presents carefully researched historical journeys in a calm, measured voice for sleep, relaxation, quiet study, and late-night listening. Tell us in the comments which city or country you are listening from tonight. Sources and further reading: William Doyle — The Oxford History of the French Revolution Peter McPhee — Liberty or Death: The French Revolution Jeremy D. Popkin — A New World Begins Georges Lefebvre — The Coming of the French Revolution Timothy Tackett — The Coming of the Terror in the French Revolution Lynn Hunt — Politics, Culture, and Class in the French Revolution David Andress — The Terror Marisa Linton — Choosing Terror Dominique Godineau — The Women of Paris and Their French Revolution Laurent Dubois — Avengers of the New World Simon Schama — Citizens Primary evidence includes the cahiers de doléances, the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, legislative debates, political speeches, petitions, newspapers, correspondence, police reports, and surviving administrative records. ____ French Revolution, French Revolution documentary, French Revolution history, complete history of the French Revolution, history for sleep, sleep history, bedtime history, relaxing history documentary, boring history for sleep, calm history narration, Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette, storming of the Bastille, Bastille 1789, Reign of Terror, Maximilien Robespierre, Napoleon Bonaparte, Estates General, Tennis Court Oath, Declaration of the Rights of Man, Women’s March on Versailles, French Republic, Jacobins, Girondins, sans-culottes, Committee of Public Safety, Haitian Revolution, Saint-Domingue, European history, eighteenth century France, History Told Softly ____ #FrenchRevolution #HistoryForSleep #SleepDocumentary #FrenchHistory #HistoryToldSoftly