The writers concentrates on the people rather than the ideas and on those dramatic upheavals and violent protests, particularly those in Paris, that influenced the Revolution's course. He describes the storming of the Bastille, the march of the market-women on Versailles, the flight of the royal family from Paris and their capture at Varennes, the assaults at Tuileris, the September massacres, the attacks by extremists on the Convention, the days of the Terror, the rise and fall of Danton and Robesppierre, the rule of the Directory and the advent of Bonaparte.