It is more than 50 years since Zhou Enlai said that it was too early to say how the French Revolution had turned out. However ...

On June 17, 1789, after Louis denied its petition for a one man-one vote policy, the Third Estate seceded and formed the National Assembly. On July 11 Louis XVI ordered the army to disband it.

“Viva La Vida” tells the story from the perspective of King Louis XVI and is linked to his last speech, after his monarch was overthrown and he was about to meet his death by guillotine.

Exiled to her mother’s family, the Hapsburg Dynasty in Vienna, she found herself pulled between their plans for her and those of her paternal uncles, the future Louis XVIII and Charles X of France.

THE ROAD FROM VERSAILLES: Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette, and the Fall of the French Monarchy Munro Price, . . St. Martin's, $29.95 (448pp) ISBN 978-0-312-26879-4 ...

At the time of the French Revolution in 1789, Paris was the global capital of science, whose leading lights, the savants (wise ones), made lasting contributions to physics, chemistry, and biology.

How the French Saved America: Soldiers, Sailors, Diplomats, Louis XVI, and the Success of a Revolution Tom Shachtman. St. Martin’s, $27.99 (368p) ISBN 978-1-250-08087-5 ...