Kropotkins' study of the French Revolution, an event that has transformed the destiny of humanity, is a fundamental interpretation that provides us today with a number of observations of great relevance. Throughout his book, Kropotkin ties his interpretation of the course of the revolution to the continuous stream of popular action, which he sees as beginning long before the revolution itself. Volume One of The Great French Revolution illustrates clearly the regenerative power of the mass of the people and passes on an important message to future generations and future revolutions.

Kropotkin's second volume continues his interpretation of this historic event by concentrating on the clash between the Jacobins and their opponents - the Hebertistes, Enrages and Anarchists. In this clash between authoritarians and anti-authoritarians, Kropotkin draws out the origins of Marxism and Leninism within the Jacobins. Although the French Revolution was a popular, mass event it was directed and disciplined by a minority of professional revolutionaries, and those who continue to exalt the Jacobins of 1793 for their organization of a post-revolutionary State, and their creation of new structures of power, fail to see that the interests followed were exactly those of the bourgeoisie.