Liberty is a brief summary of the French Revolution told though the eyes of some of its famous women. I’d originally checked it out of the library to learn more about Germaine de Staël, but she was only one of what turned out to be six fascinating women. All of these women, from all walks of life, made a difference during the Revolution. Some ran salons, some agitated in the streets, some maneuvered behind the scenes.
The misogyny of the revolutionaries like Robespierre and Napoleon unites the stories of all six women. The major revolutionaries were constantly calling for all men to be equal, but they definitely meant men and not people. Women were supposed to stay home and breast-feed their babies and support the family. That was not the role these women chose to play. They had their supporters along the way; but at the end of the day, women in France actually ended up at the end of the Revolution with fewer rights than they started with.
I recommend Liberty if you’re interested in either a feminist take on the French Revolution or if you need a high-level refresher on what happened during it.