Seeking a mandate from the French people for his policies, Louis XVI convened the Estates General. Events soon outran the king’s intentions.

IN The Atlantic for October, 1890, we reviewed Captain Mahan’s Influence of Sea Power upon History ; pointing out the originality and worth of the book, and expressing the hope that it would be ...

1. The quality that makes Jules Michelet’s history so powerful is what the French call souffle—literally, breath; figuratively, inspiration, creativity, energy. Michelet understood the French ...

I can barely remember what the American Revolution was about. A Constitution arose from it, to protect the property owners, and, at the last minute, a doggy bone for the loud-mouthed plebs, called the ...