His warnings and explanations did not prevent Europe from repeating the mistakes of the past.

The 20th century saw a replay of the French Revolution repeated in all its horror when Lenin, Mao, Hoxa, and Pol Pot followed the its script and when Stalin and Hitler made good use of Napoleon's example.
Taine irritated the elite of the 3rd French republic as well as everyone who believed in the popular democracy based on one person one vote.

You can understand when you read the following preface which was actually placed in front of "The Revolution" volume II.

Since it clarifies Taine's aims and justifications, I have moved and placed it below.
Not long before his death Taine, sensing that his wisdom and deep insights into human nature and events, no longer interested the elite, remarked to a friend that "the scientific truth about the human animal is perhaps unacceptable except for a very few".[0001] Now, 100 years later, after a century of ideological wars between ambitious men, I am afraid that the situation remains unchanged.

Mankind remains reluctant to face the realities of our uncontrolled existence! A few men begin, however, to share my misgivings about the future of a system which has completely given up the respect for wisdom and experience preferring a system of elaborate human rights and new morals.