Using a wide range of artistic, iconographic, literary and historical sources, Lynn Hunt undertakes a Freudian influenced analysis of the French Revolution. The deposition of France's monarchy, allegations of Marie-Antoinette's sexual debauchery and incest with her son, followed by the execution of Louis XVI and later his wife, were part of an unfolding revolutionary family drama, in which the positions of fathers, mothers, brothers and sisters were being realigned according to the new standards of rationalism, universalism, and especially, fraternity. Lynn Hunt investigates how the narratives of family relations structured the collective political unconscious, and how the French Revolution violently disrupted the patriarchal model of authority. Hunt's argument includes re-readings of a number of interesting and sometimes bizarre, cultural manifestations that surfaced during the revolutionary period: literary obsessions with orphaned children and incest, pornography focusing on Marie-Antoinette and a tour-de-force analysis of Sade's work. This account is not only a fascinating interpretation of the French Revolution, but also a brilliant demonstration of what cultural history can be.