revolutions historiograpy

REVOLUTIONSHISTORIOGRAPY

France

FRENCH REVOLUTION:HISTORIOGRAPHY

‘The origins of the revolution are one history; the history of the [writing about] Revolution is another history’ (Mornet)

Marxist

Revisionist

Cultural interpretations

FRENCH REVOLUTION:

MARXIST PERSPECTIVE• The Revolution was both necessary and

inevitable: Class struggle drives history forward

• Ambitious capitalist bourgeoisie striving to share power (from Feudalism to Capitalism, birth-right replaced by utility and merit)

• Explored lives and experiences of working people: wrote ‘history from below’

FRENCH REVOLUTION:

REVISIONIST PERSPECTIVES• Challenged Marxist idea of historical determinism

and class struggle• Claims there was no capitalist bourgeoisie and no

unified group of nobles resisting them (based on exploration of propertied classes)

• The collapse of the ancien regime was financial rather than social

• Often minimalist: the revolution did not bring great change for most people

FRENCH REVOLUTION:

CULTURAL INTERPRETATIONS• Focus on the birth of public opinion• Increasing number of people becoming educated

and involved in national affairs (not just bourgeoisie)

• Explores the varying ways in which political ideas were expressed, particularly the desacralisation of the monarchy

• While not seeking to ignore the devastation of the Revolution, this perspective seeks to focus on its energy and hopefulness

HANDY QUOTES FOR FRANCE: AREA OF

STUDY 1

Lefebvre on the ‘Coming of the French Revolution’

Sees the revolution as occurring in waves:’ ideas often applies to more than one aspect of the Revolution. For example:

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The Assembly of Notables

Estates-GeneralTennis Court Oath

Storming of the Bastille

The Assembly of Notables

ARISTOCRATIC REVOLT:

Nobles refuse Louis financial reforms

BOURGEOIS REVOLT: 3RD estate declare national assembly

and to create constitution

POPULAR MOVEMENT:

‘Sans Cullotes’ rebel against Monarchy

PEASANT REVOLT: Peasants

Lefebvre would argue that revolution was inevitable, and that the tennis court represented the second wave of revolt in France wherein the bourgeois....

Rudé on the Assembly of the Notables

Firstly, consider that a historians’ ideas often applies to more than one aspect of the Revolution. For example: ‘The Notables refused to endorse ministerial reforms because their own cherished fiscal immunities were threatened.’ (Rudé)

Assembly of the Notables

Dismissal of Parlements

Cahiers de doleances Estates

General

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Forrest on the Estates General

Firstly, consider that a historians’ ideas often applies to more than one aspect of the Revolution. For example: ‘The deputies who assembled at Versailles were not all obsessed with the interest and status of their order; what united and divided them was often ideology , the way in which they regarded institutions and social structures…’ (Forrest)

Cahiers de Doleances

Estates General

Creation of National Assembly

Tennis Court Oath

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Bosher on the National Assembly

Firstly, consider that a historians’ ideas often applies to more than one aspect of the Revolution. For example: ‘The National Assembly did not speak for all Frenchmen but only for a certain public.’ (Bosher)

Tennis Court Oath

Storming of the Bastilles The Great Fear August

Decrees

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Sweeney et. al on the Storming of the Bastille

Firstly, consider that a historians’ ideas often applies to more than one aspect of the Revolution. For example:‘The activities of the crowd of Paris on the journee of the fall of the Bastille had a far wider significance than just the demolition of royal tyranny’ (Sweeney et.al)


National Assembly The Great Fear August

Decrees

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Lefebvre on the Great Fear

Firstly, consider that a historians’ ideas often applies to more than one aspect of the Revolution. For example:‘It allowed the peasantry to achieve a full realisation of its strength and played part in the preparations for the night of 4 August (1789). On these grounds alone, it must count as one of the most important episodes in the history of the French nation’ (Lefebvre’

Storming of the Bastille The Great Fear

Surrender of privileges (August 4)

August Decrees

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HANDY QUOTES FOR FRANCE: AREA OF

STUDY 2

Jones, McPhee and Rudé describe the DORMAC

Firstly, consider that a historians’ ideas often applies to more than one aspect of the Revolution. For example:The Declaration of the rights and man and citizens was above all, a statement of bourgeois idealism.

Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen

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Rudé on the Women’s march to Versailles

Firstly, consider that a historians’ ideas often applies to more than one aspect of the Revolution. For example:‘The march to Versailles on 5 October, by ending in the King’s return to the capital, completed the revolution of July’ (Rudé)


August Decrees

Women’s march to Versailles

National Assembly

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Bosher on the Constitution of 1791 (Legislative Assembly)

Firstly, consider that a historians’ ideas often applies to more than one aspect of the Revolution. For example:King, ministers, and a majority of deputies shared the enlightened principle of social mobility they had learned from philosophes’ (Bosher)

DORMACReforms of

National Assembly

Estates General (AOS1)

The Philosophes

(AOS1)

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Doyle on the Civil Constitution of the Clergy

Firstly, consider that a historians’ ideas often applies to more than one aspect of the Revolution. For example:‘For the first time, it [the national Legislative Assembly] forced fellow citizens to choose: to declare themselves publically for or against the new order’ (Doyle)

Legislative Assembly

Reforms of National Assembly

Civil Constitution of

the ClergyCounter-

Revolution

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Thackett on the King’s Flight to Varennes

Firstly, consider that a historians’ ideas often applies to more than one aspect of the Revolution. For example:‘...the King had greatly contributed to the destabilisation of the state and the society’ (Thackett)

Constitution of 1791

Flight to Varennes

Champ de Mars Invasion of the

Tiulleries

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Sharma describes the Champ de Mars

Firstly, consider that a historians’ ideas often applies to more than one aspect of the Revolution. For example:‘ a central truth of the French Revolution: its dependence on organised killing to accomplish political ends’ (Schama)

Massacre at the Champs de

Mars

Invasion of the Tuilleries

September Massacres

Civil War: The Vendée, Lyons

etc

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Sharma on the execution of Louis XVI

Firstly, consider that a historians’ ideas often applies to more than one aspect of the Revolution. For example: ‘...it was the death of the King that was made to kill Kingship’ (Sharma)

Convention of 1792


Champ de Mars massacre

Counter Revolution and

the Terror

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Bosher on the execution of Louis XVI

Firstly, consider that a historians’ ideas often applies to more than one aspect of the Revolution. For example:Republicanism in France was a result of the Revolution, not the cause of it’ (Bosher)

Massacre at the Champs de

Mars


Convention of 1792

Civil War: The Vendée, Lyons

etc

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Sharma on the Committee of Public Safety

Firstly, consider that a historians’ ideas often applies to more than one aspect of the Revolution. For example:‘The committee of public safety rapidly turned itself into the most concentrated state machine France had ever experienced’ (Sharma).

The Committee of Public Safety

The Terror Counter Revolution Robespierre

Marat

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A COUPLE OF HANDY GENERAL QUOTES

FOR FRANCE

Soboul (marxist) summarises the outcome of the French Revolution

Firstly, consider that a historians’ ideas often applies to more than one aspect of the Revolution. For example:‘The French Revolution demonstrated historical law of transition from feudalism to modern capitalism’ (Soboul)

Any question that draws attention to the class based nature of the French Revolution

Taylor (revisionist) summarises the outcome of the French Revolution

Firstly, consider that a historians’ ideas often applies to more than one aspect of the Revolution. For example:‘the bourgeoisie was far from the united, self conscious and self-confident class that has often been assumed’ (Taylor)

Any question that draws attention to the class based nature of the French Revolution

revolutions historiograpy

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