The Terrible Year

Beneath the glittering facade of Louis-Napoleon's Second Empire there were forces of seething social and political unrest. When France succumbed to the Prussian invaders these forces came to the surface and the Commune took over. It ruled for only a brief seventy days before it died in a holocaust of fire and bloodshed that was far worse than anything perpetrated during France's Great Revolution of 1789, but it left behind an indelible mark which spread far beyond the boundaries of France.

Educated Le Rosey, Switzerland and Jesus College, Cambridge. WWII included attachment in MI5. Foreign correspondent Daily Telegraph 1952-5. Founded the Alistair Horne research fellowship in modern history, St Antony's, Oxford 1969. Prizes include Hawthornden (for The Price of Glory) and Wolfson (for A Savage War of Peace). He was knighted in 2003 (Queen's birthday honours) for services to Franco-British relations.

Beneath the glittering facade of Louis-Napoleon's Second Empire there were forces of seething social and political unrest. When France succumbed to the Prussian invaders these forces came to the surface and the Commune took over. It ruled for only a brief seventy days before it died in a holocaust of fire and bloodshed that was far worse than anything perpetrated during France's Great Revolution of 1789, but it left behind an indelible mark which spread far beyond the boundaries of France.

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