SOURCE: “Narrative's Problems: The Case of Simon Schama,” in Journal of Modern History, Vol. 65, No. 1, March, 1993, pp. 176–92.

In the following essay, Spitzer examines Schama's historical interpretation of the French Revolution in Citizens.

The immense outpouring of works occasioned by the bicentenary of the French Revolution—many of them devoted to criticizing the event while celebrating its two hundredth anniversary—has begun to subside and to be succeeded by its “echo effect,” a critical reconsideration of the historical literature it has produced. The reevaluation of the influential contributions of François Furet, for example, has in itself become a minor genre in the historiography of the Revolution.¹ This essay is intended as a contribution to critical reflections on the recent literature with reference to the phenomenally successful narrative history of the Revolution by Simon Schama [in Citizens].

Schama's blockbuster has enjoyed a mixed response from academic historians—not always...