Product Review

Professor Cormack's study examines the French Navy during the Revolution, focusing on the fleet's involvement in political conflict. Although ignored by historians of the Revolution, the navy's experience illustrates a nation-wide struggle between authority based on executive power and authority based ambiguously on the "People's Will." The book charts the evolution of this struggle in the assemblies and in the ports of Toulon and Brest, revealing its impact on the navy and its central importance to the French Revolution.