The Fourteenth of July

The storming of the Bastille on July 14, 1789 and the beginning of the French Revolution.

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Using contemporary accounts, often by eyewitnesses, Prendergast describes the Bastille prison, its reputation as France's most feared place of incarceration; its storming by the armed populace, and the momentous aftermath...And then richly and fascinatingly he shows how the celebration of this extraordinary day, truly one of those which have shaped the world, became part of the fabric of national life.