Though avid reader of Enlightenment history, if I had not had to read this book for class, I never would have picked it up. I'll admit, I'm a sucker for a pretty cover, but I saw this book everywhere in stores when it came out, which gave it the stigma of being "popular" history written for the non-historian. But since I *had* to read it, I honestly did go in hoping that my first impression was wrong and that I would like it. But no.



I really, really disliked this book. Either Tackett is forgetful, or he assumes that the reader is. He defined a "cocarde" twice before page 150. Every time he mentioned Bailly, he felt the need to "remind" the reader who the man was, always saying something along the lines of "Bailly, astronomer and onetime friend of Benjamin Franklin." He repeats himself in a similar fashion over a number of people and subjects during the entire book. Perhaps someone new to the subject (probably Tackett's intended audience) would find the book more usetful, but I have my doubts. Tackett doesn't write very chronologically . Even as someone who has read a good many books on the French Revolution, I was still jarred by his strange order, which confused the points he was trying to make. He also leaves out a few things, such as many of the details of the Champs de Mars massacre. Whether or not Lafayette actually did give the order for troops to fire on the protesters, Tackett makes no mention of even the probability. Even Unger, whose rather poor biography of Lafayette does not (as I recall, it's been a while since I read the book) totally whitewash him in that respect! (And I'm a big Lafayette fan...)



When the King Took Flight is bland, poorly written, and Tackett fails to tie most of it into his main point in a significant, insightful way. It seems like he wanted to stretch a small amount of material into enough pages to make a respectably sized book. I will admit that his efforts to try and figure out what various kinds of contemporaries thought were commendable. His documentation of the spread of information was the best part of the book. If it had been an essay of about 30-60 pages, it might have seemed more meaningful. Don't forget, "brevity is the soul of wit!"



Authors to read instead: Hunt, Tilly, Bouloiseau.