When a Parisian crowd stormed the Bastille in July 1789, it triggered the overthrow of the monarchy and the birth of a new society. In retrospect we understand the French Revolution as the outcome of such factors as a faltering economy and Enlightenment thought. But what did the Parisians themselves think they were doing - how did they understand their world? In this dazzling history, Robert Darnton draws on decades of study to conjure a past as vivid as today's news.