BOOK REVIEW A continuing analysis

  LIBERTY OR DEATH: The French Revolution by Peter McPhee Yale University Press, Yale Hardcover: 488 pagesISBN: 9780300189933Price: AUD$57.95   Reviewed by Bill James   General Charles de Gaulle once asked: “How can you govern a country which has two hundred and forty-six varieties of cheese?” France has always been a nation of striking regional differences, and this was no less true during the revolutionary era 1789–99. One of the strengths of Peter McPhee’s story in Liberty or Death: The French Revolution is that he continually describes the ways in which the revolution, and the reactions to it, took varying forms,…