François Pierre Guillaume Guizot was a French historian, orator, and statesman. He played a significant role in French politics before the Revolution of 1848, actively opposing as a liberal the reactionary King Charles X before his overthrow in the July Revolution of 1830, then in government service to the "citizen king" Louis Philippe, as the Minister of Education, 1832-1837, ambassador to London, Foreign Minister 1840-1847, and finally Prime Minister of France from September 19, 1847 to February 23, 1848. His six-volume series "A Popular History of France" is an attractive and engrossing narrative, and easily readable in English, thanks to the translation by Robert Black. (Karen Merline's summary edited by Cate Barratt) Other volumes available