Using a wide range of artistic, iconographic, literary and historical sources, Lynn Hunt undertakes a Freudian influenced analysis of the French Revolution to examine the breakdown of patriarchal model of authority. `All in all, the book offers exciting and novel perspectives on the Revolution, and on politics more generally, ... a vindication of the power and importance of cultural history, ...' - Patrick Joyce Times Higher Education Supplement`... the book offers exciting and novel perspectives on the Revolution, ... Hunt's book is a vindication of the power and importance of cultural history , and a significant signpost to a new sort of political history.' - Times Higher Education`This is European cultural history at its best.' - France in Print