In its fifth year (1793-1794), the French Revolution faced a multifaceted crisis that threatened to overwhelm the Republic. In response the government instituted a revolutionary dictatorship and a 'reign of terror', with a Committee of Public Safety at its head. R.R. Palmer's fascinating narrative follows the Committee's deputies individually and collectively, recounting and assessing their tumultuous struggles in Paris and their repressive missions in the provinces. A new foreword by Isser Woloch explains why this book has been, and deserves to remain, an enduring classic in French revolutionary studies.