SOURCE: “French Revolution 1,” in New Statesman and Society, May 26, 1989, p. 30.

In the following review of Citizens, Doyle commends Schama's appealing narrative style, but finds shortcomings in his focus on the upper class, exclusion of events after 1794, and lack of analysis.

Simon Schama is perhaps best known for his massive, challenging analysis of Dutch 17th century culture, The Embarrassment of Riches (1987). But he arrived on the historical scene ten years before that with Patriots and Liberators, a magnificent portrait of Dutch history in a later period, that of the French revolution. To write that great epic, he had to steep himself in French as well as Dutch archives and sources, so he is well qualified to chronicle the awesome upheaval whose bicentenary is being commemorated this year. No bigger book is likely to enjoy more popular success, for Schama writes with verve, style and colour and his text [in...