How did Hippolyte Taine view the French Revolution?

Hippolyte Taine held a deeply hostile view of the French Revolution, a perspective he developed and articulated in his monumental work, Les Origines de la France contemporaine ("The Origins of Contemporary France").

Influenced by the views of Edmund Burke, Taine argued that the Revolution did not promote liberty as many in France believed. Instead, he contended that it merely transferred absolute power into even more illiberal hands. Taine identified the primary fault of France as excessive centralization, which he believed originated during the ancien régime and was subsequently intensified by the revolutionary process.

Following the French defeat in the Franco-German War of 1870–71, Taine became convinced that his country suffered from a deep national sickness. He dedicated his later years to this historical analysis, seeking the sources of the political instability that he held responsible for France's plight. While he claimed to apply scientific objectivity to his research, the reliability of his interpretations has been challenged by later historians.