Historiography of the French Revolution
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The historiography of the French Revolution stretches back over two hundred years, as commentators and historians have used a vast array of primary sources to explain the origins of the Revolution, and its meaning and its impact. By the year 2000, many historians were saying that the field of the
French Revolution The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are considere ...
was in intellectual disarray. The old model or paradigm focusing on class conflict has been largely abandoned but no new explanatory model had gained widespread support. Nevertheless, there persists a very widespread agreement that the French Revolution was the watershed between the premodern and modern eras of Western history.


Contemporary and 19th-century historians

The literature in French is vast, and in English quite substantial.


Adolphe Thiers and French historians

The first major work on the Revolution by a French historian was published between 1823 and 1827 by Adolphe Thiers. His celebrated ''Histoire de la Révolution française'', in ten volumes, founded his literary reputation and launched his political career. The complete work of ten volumes sold ten thousand sets, an enormous number for the time. It went through four more editions. Thiers' history was particularly popular in liberal circles and among younger Parisians. Written during the Restoration, when the tricolor flag and singing the Marseillaise were forbidden, the book praised the principles, leaders and accomplishments of the 1789 Revolution; the clear heroes were Mirabeau, Lafayette, and other moderate leaders. It condemned Marat, Robespierre and the other radical leaders, and also condemned the monarchy, aristocracy and clergy for their inability to change. The book played a notable role in undermining the legitimacy of the Bourbon regime of
Charles X Charles X (born Charles Philippe, Count of Artois; 9 October 1757 – 6 November 1836) was King of France from 16 September 1824 until 2 August 1830. An uncle of the uncrowned Louis XVII and younger brother to reigning kings Louis XVI and Lou ...
, and bringing about the
July Revolution The French Revolution of 1830, also known as the July Revolution (french: révolution de Juillet), Second French Revolution, or ("Three Glorious ays), was a second French Revolution after the first in 1789. It led to the overthrow of King ...
of 1830. Thiers went on to become a Deputy, twice Prime Minister, and the first president of the
Third French Republic The French Third Republic (french: Troisième République, sometimes written as ) was the system of government adopted in France from 4 September 1870, when the Second French Empire collapsed during the Franco-Prussian War, until 10 July 1940 ...
. He also headed the French government in 1871 which suppressed the
Paris Commune The Paris Commune (french: Commune de Paris, ) was a revolutionary government that seized power in Paris, the capital of France, from 18 March to 28 May 1871. During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71, the French National Guard had defended ...
. Thiers' history of the Revolution was praised by the French authors Chateaubriand,
Stendhal Marie-Henri Beyle (; 23 January 1783 – 23 March 1842), better known by his pen name Stendhal (, ; ), was a 19th-century French writer. Best known for the novels ''Le Rouge et le Noir'' (''The Red and the Black'', 1830) and ''La Chartreuse de P ...
, and Sainte-Beuve, was translated into English (1838) and Spanish (1889), and won him a seat in the
Académie française An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary education, secondary or tertiary education, tertiary higher education, higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membershi ...
in 1834. It was less appreciated by British critics, in large part because of his favorable view of the French Revolution and of Napoleon Bonaparte. The British historian
Thomas Carlyle Thomas Carlyle (4 December 17955 February 1881) was a Scottish essayist, historian and philosopher. A leading writer of the Victorian era, he exerted a profound influence on 19th-century art, literature and philosophy. Born in Ecclefechan, Dum ...
, who wrote his own history of the French Revolution, complained that it "was far as possible from meriting its high reputation", though he admitted that Thiers is "a brisk man in his way, and will tell you much if you know nothing." The British historian Hugh Chisholm wrote in the 1911 edition of the ''Encyclopædia Britannica,'' "Thiers' historical work is marked by extreme inaccuracy, by prejudice which passes the limits of accidental unfairness, and by an almost complete indifference to the merits as compared with the successes of his heroes."


Attacks from the right

The constant stream of major books began with
Edmund Burke Edmund Burke (; 12 January NS.html"_;"title="New_Style.html"_;"title="/nowiki>New_Style">NS">New_Style.html"_;"title="/nowiki>New_Style">NS/nowiki>_1729_–_9_July_1797)_was_an_ NS.html"_;"title="New_Style.html"_;"title="/nowiki>New_Style"> ...
's ''
Reflections on the Revolution in France ''Reflections on the Revolution in France'' is a political pamphlet written by the Irish statesman Edmund Burke and published in November 1790. It is fundamentally a contrast of the French Revolution to that time with the unwritten British Const ...
'' (1790). In it he established the conservative stream of opinion, wherein even the revolution of July 1789 went "too far". His book is not so much studied today as part of Revolution studies, but rather as a classic of conservative
political philosophy Political philosophy or political theory is the philosophical study of government, addressing questions about the nature, scope, and legitimacy of public agents and institutions and the relationships between them. Its topics include politics, l ...
. In France, conspiracy theories were rife in the highly charged political atmosphere, with the Abbé Barruel, in perhaps the most influential work ''
Memoirs Illustrating the History of Jacobinism ''Memoirs Illustrating the History of Jacobinism'' (French: ''Mémoires pour servir à l’histoire du Jacobinisme'') is a book by Abbé Augustin Barruel, a French Jesuit priest. It was written and published in French in 1797–98, and translated ...
'' (1797–1798), arguing that Freemasons and other dissidents had been responsible for an attempt to destroy the monarchy and the Catholic Church.
Hippolyte Taine Hippolyte Adolphe Taine (, 21 April 1828 – 5 March 1893) was a French historian, critic and philosopher. He was the chief theoretical influence on French naturalism, a major proponent of sociological positivism and one of the first practition ...
(1828–1893) was among the more conservative of the originators of
social history Social history, often called the new social history, is a field of history that looks at the lived experience of the past. In its "golden age" it was a major growth field in the 1960s and 1970s among scholars, and still is well represented in his ...
. His most famous work is his ''Origines de la France Contemporaine'' (1875–1893). From 1833 to 1842, the prolific British author Sir Archibald Alison wrote and published a ten-volume history of the Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars, called ''History of Europe from the Commencement of the French Revolution in 1789 to the Restoration of the Bourbons in 1815''. His view was markedly conservative and quite akin to that which Burke held; Alison saw the practical use of theoretical Enlightenment ideas as foolhardy and dangerous. The immense work was highly popular in its time despite its author's notorious wordiness. Many minor studies appeared, such as ''The French Revolution: A Study in Democracy'' by British writer
Nesta Webster Nesta Helen Webster (née Bevan, 24 August 1876 – 16 May 1960) was an English author who promoted antisemitic canards and revived theories about the Illuminati.Who are the Illuminati? ''Independent on Sunday'' (London) 6 November 2005. S ...
, published in 1919. It advanced the theory that the progress of the French Revolution was considerably influenced by a conspiracy conducted by "the lodges of the German Freemasons and Illuminati".


Liberal support for 1789–1791

A simplified description of the liberal approach to the Revolution was typically to support the achievements of the constitutional monarchy of the
National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the rep ...
but disown the later actions of radical violence like the invasion of the Tuileries and the Terror. French historians of the first half of the 19th century like the politician and
man of letters An intellectual is a person who engages in critical thinking, research, and reflection about the reality of society, and who proposes solutions for the normative problems of society. Coming from the world of culture, either as a creator or a ...
François Guizot (1787–1874), historian
François Mignet François Auguste Marie Mignet (, 8 May 1796 – 24 March 1884) was a French journalist and historian of the French Revolution. Biography He was born in Aix-en-Provence (Bouches-du-Rhône), France. His father was a locksmith from the Vendé ...
(published ''Histoire de la Révolution française'' in 1824), and famous philosopher
Alexis de Tocqueville Alexis Charles Henri Clérel, comte de Tocqueville (; 29 July 180516 April 1859), colloquially known as Tocqueville (), was a French aristocrat, diplomat, political scientist, political philosopher and historian. He is best known for his works ...
(''L'Ancien Régime et la Révolution'', 1856) established and wrote in this tradition. *
Jules Michelet Jules Michelet (; 21 August 1798 – 9 February 1874) was a French historian and an author on other topics whose major work was a history of France and its culture. His aphoristic style emphasized his anti-clerical republicanism. In Michelet's ...
(1798–1874) – His ''Histoire de la Révolution française'', published after the
Revolution of 1848 The Revolutions of 1848, known in some countries as the Springtime of the Peoples or the Springtime of Nations, were a series of political upheavals throughout Europe starting in 1848. It remains the most widespread revolutionary wave in Europe ...
, is a major history. Historian
François Furet François Furet (; 27 March 1927 – 12 July 1997) was a French historian and president of the Saint-Simon Foundation, best known for his books on the French Revolution. From 1985 to 1997, Furet was a professor of French history at the University ...
, a leader of the Annales School, argues that his multivolume history remains "the cornerstone of all revolutionary historiography and is also a literary monument." His aphoristic style emphasized his
anti-clerical Anti-clericalism is opposition to religious authority, typically in social or political matters. Historical anti-clericalism has mainly been opposed to the influence of Roman Catholicism. Anti-clericalism is related to secularism, which seeks to ...
republicanism Republicanism is a political ideology centered on citizenship in a state organized as a republic. Historically, it emphasises the idea of self-rule and ranges from the rule of a representative minority or oligarchy to popular sovereignty. It ...
.


Others in the 19th century

Other French historians in the 19th-century include: *
Louis Blanc Louis Jean Joseph Charles Blanc (; ; 29 October 1811 – 6 December 1882) was a French politician and historian. A socialist who favored reforms, he called for the creation of cooperatives in order to guarantee employment for the urban poor. Alt ...
(1811–1882) – Blanc's 13-volume ''Histoire de la Révolution française'' (1847–1862) displays
utopian socialist Utopian socialism is the term often used to describe the first current of modern socialism and socialist thought as exemplified by the work of Henri de Saint-Simon, Charles Fourier, Étienne Cabet, and Robert Owen. Utopian socialism is often de ...
views, and sympathizes with
Jacobinism A Jacobin (; ) was a member of the Jacobin Club, a revolutionary political movement that was the most famous political club during the French Revolution (1789–1799). The club got its name from meeting at the Dominican rue Saint-Honoré M ...
. *
Théodore Gosselin Louis Léon Théodore Gosselin (7 October 1855, in Richemont, Moselle – 7 February 1935) was a French historian and playwright who wrote under the pen name G. Lenotre. He wrote articles in publications such as ''Le Figaro'', '' Revue des de ...
(1855–1935) – Better known by the pseudonym "G. Lenotre". * Albert Sorel (1842–1906) – Diplomatic historian; ''L'Europe et la Révolution française'' (8 volumes, 1895–1904); introductory section of this work translated as ''Europe under the Old Regime'' (1947). *
Edgar Quinet Edgar Quinet (; 17 February 180327 March 1875) was a French historian and intellectual. Biography Early years Quinet was born at Bourg-en-Bresse, in the ''département'' of Ain. His father, Jérôme Quinet, had been a commissary in the army, ...
(1803–1875) – Late Romantic anti-Catholic nationalist.


Thomas Carlyle

One of the most famous English works on the Revolution remains
Thomas Carlyle Thomas Carlyle (4 December 17955 February 1881) was a Scottish essayist, historian and philosopher. A leading writer of the Victorian era, he exerted a profound influence on 19th-century art, literature and philosophy. Born in Ecclefechan, Dum ...
's three-volume '' The French Revolution, A History'' (1837

It is a romanticism, romantic work, both in style and viewpoint. Passionate in his concern for the poor and in his interest in the fears and hopes of revolution, he (while reasonably historically accurate) is often more concerned with conveying his impression of the hopes and aspirations of people (and his opposition to ossified ideology"formulas" or "Isms"as he called them) than with strict adherence to fact. The undoubted passion and intensity of the text may also be due to the famous incident where he sent the completed draft of the first volume to
John Stuart Mill John Stuart Mill (20 May 1806 – 7 May 1873) was an English philosopher, political economist, Member of Parliament (MP) and civil servant. One of the most influential thinkers in the history of classical liberalism, he contributed widely to ...
for comment, only for Mill's maid to accidentally burn the volume to ashes, forcing Carlyle to start from scratch. He wrote to
Ralph Waldo Emerson Ralph Waldo Emerson (May 25, 1803April 27, 1882), who went by his middle name Waldo, was an American essayist, lecturer, philosopher, abolitionist, and poet who led the transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century. He was seen as a champ ...
that the writing of the book was the "dreadfulest labor eever undertook".


Anarchists

In 1909,
Peter Kropotkin Pyotr Alexeyevich Kropotkin (; russian: link=no, Пётр Алексе́евич Кропо́ткин ; 9 December 1842 – 8 February 1921) was a Russian anarchist, socialist, revolutionary, historian, scientist, philosopher, and activis ...
, a Russian anarchist, published '' The Great French Revolution'', which attempts to round out the political approach with the perspective and contribution to the Revolution of the common man.


Alphonse Aulard and academic studies

Alphonse Aulard Alphonse may refer to: * Alphonse (given name) * Alphonse (surname) * Alphonse Atoll, one of two atolls in the Seychelles' Alphonse Group See also *Alphons *Alfonso (disambiguation) Alfonso (and variants Alphonso, Afonso, Alphons, and Alphonse) i ...
(1849–1928) was the first professional historian of the Revolution; he promoted graduate studies, scholarly editions, and learned journals. His appointment to the Sorbonne was promoted and funded by Republicans in the national and Paris governments, but he was not himself involved in party politics. He promoted a republican, bourgeois, and anticlerical view of the revolution. From 1886 he taught at the Sorbonne, trained advanced students, founded the ''Société de l'Histoire de la Révolution'', and edited the scholarly journal ''La Révolution française''. He assembled and published many key primary sources. He professionalized scholarship in the field, moving away from the literary multi-volume studies aimed at an upscale general public, promoting special political ideals, that had characterized writing on the Revolution before the 1880s. Instead his work was aimed at fellow scholars and researchers. His broad interpretation argued:
From the social point of view, the Revolution consisted in the suppression of what was called the feudal system, in the emancipation of the individual, in greater division of landed property, the abolition of the privileges of noble birth, the establishment of equality, the simplification of life.... The French Revolution differed from other revolutions in being not merely national, for it aimed at benefiting all humanity."
Aulard's historiography was based on positivism. The assumption was that methodology was all-important and the historian's duty was to present in chronological order the duly verified facts, to analyze relations between facts, and provide the most likely interpretation. Full documentation based on research in the primary sources was essential. He took the lead in training advanced students in the proper use and analysis of primary sources. Aulard's famous four volume history of the Revolution focused on technical issues. Aulard's books favored the study of parliamentary debates, not action in the street; institutions, not insurrections. He emphasized public opinion, elections, parties, parliamentary majorities, and legislation. He recognized the complications that prevented the Revolution from fulfilling all its ideal promises – as when the legislators of 1793 made suffrage universal for all French men, but also established the dictatorship of the Terror.


Marxist/Classic interpretation

The dominating approach to the French Revolution in historical scholarship in the first half of the 20th century was the Marxist, or Classic, approach. This view sees the French Revolution as an essentially
bourgeois revolution Bourgeois revolution is a term used in Marxist theory to refer to a social revolution that aims to destroy a feudal system or its vestiges, establish the rule of the bourgeoisie, and create a bourgeois state. In colonised or subjugated countries ...
, marked by class struggle and resulting in a victory of the
bourgeoisie The bourgeoisie ( , ) is a social class, equivalent to the middle or upper middle class. They are distinguished from, and traditionally contrasted with, the proletariat by their affluence, and their great cultural and financial capital. They ...
. Influenced by socialist politician
Jean Jaurès Auguste Marie Joseph Jean Léon Jaurès (3 September 185931 July 1914), commonly referred to as Jean Jaurès (; oc, Joan Jaurés ), was a French Socialist leader. Initially a Moderate Republican, he later became one of the first social dem ...
and historian
Albert Mathiez Albert-Xavier-Émile Mathiez (; 10 January 1874 – 25 February 1932) was a French historian, best known for his Marxist interpretation of the French Revolution. Mathiez emphasized class conflict. He argued that 1789 pitted the bourgeoisie against ...
(who broke with his teacher Aulard regarding class conflict), historians on the left led by
Georges Lefebvre Georges Lefebvre (; 6 August 1874 – 28 August 1959) was a French historian, best known for his work on the French Revolution and peasant life. He is considered one of the pioneers of " history from below". He coined the phrase the ...
and
Albert Soboul Albert Marius Soboul (27 April 1914 – 11 September 1982) was a historian of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic periods. A professor at the University of Paris, Sorbonne, he was chair of the History of the French Revolution and author of ...
developed this view. Lefebvre was inspired by Jaurès and came to the field from a mildly socialist viewpoint. His massive and reputation-making thesis, ''Les paysans du Nord'' (1924), was an account of the Revolution among provincial peasants. He continued to research along these lines, publishing ''The Great Fear of 1789'' (1932, first English translation 1973), about the panic and violence which spread throughout rural France in the summer of 1789. His work largely approaches the Revolution "from below", favouring explanations in terms of classes. His most famous work was ''Quatre-Vingt-Neuf'' (literally ''Eighty-Nine'', published in 1939 and translated into English as ''The Coming of the French Revolution'', 1947). This skilfully and persuasively argued work interprets the Revolution through a Marxist lens: first there is the "aristocratic revolution" of the
Assembly of Notables An Assembly of Notables (French: ''Assemblée des notables'') was a group of high-ranking nobles, ecclesiastics, and state functionaries convened by the King of France on extraordinary occasions to consult on matters of state. Assemblymen were ...
and the Paris Parlement in 1788; then the "bourgeois revolution" of the
Third Estate The estates of the realm, or three estates, were the broad orders of social hierarchy used in Christendom (Christian Europe) from the Middle Ages to early modern Europe. Different systems for dividing society members into estates developed and ...
; the "popular revolution", symbolised by the fall of the Bastille; and the "peasant revolution", represented by the "Great Fear" in the provinces and the burning of châteaux. (Alternately, one can view 1788 as the aristocratic revolution, 1789 the bourgeois revolution, and 1792/3 the popular revolution). This interpretation sees a rising capitalist middle-class overthrow a dying-out feudal aristocratic ruling caste, and held the field for almost twenty years. His major publication was ''La Révolution française'' (1957, translated and published in English in two volumes, 1962–1967). This, and particularly his later work on Napoleon and the Directory, remains highly regarded. Some other influential French historians of this period: * Ernest Labrousse (1895–1988) – Performed extensive economic research on 18th-century France. *
Albert Soboul Albert Marius Soboul (27 April 1914 – 11 September 1982) was a historian of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic periods. A professor at the University of Paris, Sorbonne, he was chair of the History of the French Revolution and author of ...
(1914–1982) – Performed exhaustive research on the lower classes of the Revolution; his most famous work is ''The Sans-Culottes'' (1968). *
George Rudé George Rudé (8 February 1910 – 8 January 1993) was a British Marxist historian, specializing in the French Revolution and " history from below", especially the importance of crowds in history.George Rudé (1964). ''The Crowd in History. A St ...
(1910–1993) – Another of Lefebvre's protégés, did further work on the popular side of the Revolution: ''The Crowd in the French Revolution'' (1959) is one of his most famous works. *
Daniel Guérin Daniel Guérin (; 19 May 1904, in Paris – 14 April 1988, in Suresnes) was a French libertarian-communist author, best known for his work '' Anarchism: From Theory to Practice'', as well as his collection ''No Gods No Masters: An Anthology of ...
(1904–1988) – An anarchist, he is highly critical of the Jacobins. Some of the significant conservative French historians of this period include: *
Pierre Gaxotte Pierre Gaxotte (19 November 1895 – 21 November 1982) was a French historian. Gaxotte was born in Revigny-sur-Ornain, Meuse. He began his career as a history teacher at the Lycée Charlemagne and later worked as a columnist for ''Le Figaro''. Ove ...
(1895–1982) – Royalist: ''The French Revolution'' (1928). * Augustin Cochin (1876–1916) – Attributed the origins of the Revolution to activities of the
intelligentsia The intelligentsia is a status class composed of the university-educated people of a society who engage in the complex mental labours by which they critique, shape, and lead in the politics, policies, and culture of their society; as such, the in ...
. * Albert Sorel (1842–1906) – Diplomatic historian: ''Europe et la Révolution française'' (eight volumes, 1895–1904); introductory section of this work translated as ''Europe under the Old Regime'' (1947). The following five scholars have served as Chairs in the History of the French Revolution at the Sorbonne: *
Hippolyte Taine Hippolyte Adolphe Taine (, 21 April 1828 – 5 March 1893) was a French historian, critic and philosopher. He was the chief theoretical influence on French naturalism, a major proponent of sociological positivism and one of the first practition ...
* F.A. Aulard – 1891 (for more than thirty years) *
Georges Lefebvre Georges Lefebvre (; 6 August 1874 – 28 August 1959) was a French historian, best known for his work on the French Revolution and peasant life. He is considered one of the pioneers of " history from below". He coined the phrase the ...
– 1937–1959 *
Albert Soboul Albert Marius Soboul (27 April 1914 – 11 September 1982) was a historian of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic periods. A professor at the University of Paris, Sorbonne, he was chair of the History of the French Revolution and author of ...
– 1967–1982 * Michel Vovelle – 1982


Revisionism and modern work

"Revisionism" in this context means the rejection of the Orthodox/Marxist model of a revolution carried out by the bourgeoisie against the aristocracy on the right, with intervention from the proletariat pushing it to the left. J. B. Shank finds that 21st century trends include a broader range of topics regarding the effects of the Revolution, and a more global perspective. He cites heavy use of the Internet, resources such as the H-France daily discussion email list, and use of digital sources to scan through massive amounts of text.


Alfred Cobban

In 1954,
Alfred Cobban Alfred Bert Carter Cobban (24 May 1901 – 1 April 1968) was an English historian and Professor of French History at University College, London, who along with prominent French historian François Furet advocated a classical liberal view of the F ...
used his inaugural lecture as Professor of French History at the University of London to attack what he called the "social interpretation" of the French Revolution. The lecture was later published as "The Myth of the French Revolution", but his seminal work arguing this point was ''The Social Interpretation of the French Revolution'' (1963). It was published in French translation only in 1984. His main point was that feudalism had long since disappeared in France; that the Revolution did not transform French society, and that it was principally a political revolution, not a social one as Lefebvre and others insisted. Although dismissed and attacked by the mainstream journals at first, Cobban was persistent and determined, and his approach was soon supported and modified by a flood of new research both inside and outside France. American historian George V. Taylor's research established that the bourgeoisie of the Third Estate were not quite the budding capitalists they were made out to be; indeed Taylor showed the aristocrats were just as entrepreneurial if not more so.
John McManners John McManners (1916–2006) was a British clergyman and historian of religion who specialized in the history of the church and other aspects of religious life in 18th-century France. He was Regius Professor of Ecclesiastical History at the Univ ...
, Jean Egret, Franklin Ford and others wrote on the divided and complex situation of the nobility in pre-revolutionary France. The most significant opposition to arise in France was that of ''Annales'' historians
François Furet François Furet (; 27 March 1927 – 12 July 1997) was a French historian and president of the Saint-Simon Foundation, best known for his books on the French Revolution. From 1985 to 1997, Furet was a professor of French history at the University ...
, Denis Richet, and
Mona Ozouf Mona Ozouf born Mona Annig Sohier (born 24 February 1931) is a French historian and philosopher. Born into a family of schoolteachers keen on preserving the language and culture of Brittany, she graduated as a teacher of philosophy from the Éco ...
. Furet in the 1960s worked in terms of the Annales School, which locates the 1789 revolution in a "long" history of 19th century revolutionary France.


Richard Cobb

Another seminal figure in the revisionism debate is the Francophile Englishman
Richard Cobb Richard Charles Cobb (20 May 1917 – 15 January 1996) was a British historian and essayist, and professor at the University of Oxford. He was the author of numerous influential works about the history of France, particularly the French R ...
, who has produced a number of immensely detailed studies of both provincial and city life, avoiding the revisionism debate by "keeping his nose very close to the ground". ''Les armées révolutionnaires'' (1968, translated as ''The People's Armies'' in 1987) is his most famous work.


William Doyle

William Doyle, professor at Bristol University, has published ''The Origins of the French Revolution'' (1988) and a revisionist history, ''
The Oxford History of the French Revolution ''The Oxford History of the French Revolution'' (1989; second edition 2002; third edition 2018) is a history of the French Revolution by the British historian William Doyle, in which the author analyzes the impact of the revolutionary events in ...
'' (2nd edition 2002). Another historian working in this tradition is
Keith Michael Baker Keith Michael Baker (born 7 August 1938) is a British-born historian. Baker received his bachelor's and master's degrees at Peterhouse, Cambridge, and completed a doctorate at University College London. He began his academic career in the United ...
. A collection of his essays (''Inventing the French Revolution'', 1990) examines the ideological origins of the Revolution.


Timothy Tackett

Timothy Tackett Timothy Tackett (born 1945) is an American historian specializing in the French Revolution and professor emeritus at the University of California, Irvine. His 1996 book about the members of the National Constituent Assembly of 1789 won the Leo ...
in particular has changed approach, preferring archival research to historiographical dialectics. He challenges the ideas about nobility and bourgeoise in ''Becoming a Revolutionary'' (2006), a "collective biography" via letters and diaries of the third estate deputies of 1789. His other major work is ''When the King Took Flight'' (2004), a study of the rise of republicanism and radicalism in the Legislative Assembly in 1791-2. Tackett also has several works focusing on
Reign of Terror The Reign of Terror (french: link=no, la Terreur) was a period of the French Revolution when, following the creation of the First Republic, a series of massacres and numerous public executions took place in response to revolutionary fervour, ...
, ''The Coming of the Terror in the French Revolution'' (2015), and the psychology behind the paranoia affecting the Committee of Public Safety during the Terror. These insights provide a deeper look into how and why this event happened.


Simon Schama

Simon Schama Sir Simon Michael Schama (; born 13 February 1945) is an English historian specialising in art history, Dutch history, Jewish history, and French history. He is a University Professor of History and Art History at Columbia University. He fir ...
's '' Citizens: A Chronicle of the French Revolution'' (1989) is a popular, generally moderate/conservative history of the period. It is ostensibly a narrative of "Persons" and "Events", and more in the tradition of Carlyle than Tocqueville and Lefebvre. Its narrative- while massive- focuses on the most visible leaders of the Revolution, even through its more "popular" phases. The book's allegiance is to historical literary styles rather than schools. Thus Schama is simultaneously able to deny the existence of a so-called "bourgeois" revolution, reserve apotheoses for Robespierre,
Louis XVI Louis XVI (''Louis-Auguste''; ; 23 August 175421 January 1793) was the last King of France before the fall of the monarchy during the French Revolution. He was referred to as ''Citizen Louis Capet'' during the four months just before he was ...
, and the ''
sans-culottes The (, 'without breeches') were the common people of the lower classes in late 18th-century France, a great many of whom became radical and militant partisans of the French Revolution in response to their poor quality of life under the . T ...
'' alike, and utilize historical nuance to a degree usually associated with more liberal historians. Borrowing from the Romantics for imagery (the introduction closely follows that of Michelet's "History..."), "Citizens" also argues against the Romantics' belief in the necessity of the Revolution. Schama concentrates on the early years of the Revolution, the Republic only taking up about a fifth of the book. He also places increased emphasis on insurrectionary violence in Paris and violence in general, claiming that it was "not the unfortunate by-product of revolution, utthe source of its energy."


Lynn Hunt and feminism

Lynn Hunt Lynn Avery Hunt (born November 16, 1945) is the Eugen Weber Professor of Modern European History at the University of California, Los Angeles. Her area of expertise is the French Revolution, but she is also well known for her work in European cu ...
, though often characterized as a feminist interpreter of the Revolution, is a historian working in the wake of the revisionists. Her major works include ''Politics, Culture, and Class in the French Revolution'' (1984), and ''The Family Romance of the French Revolution'' (1992), both interpretative works. The former focuses on the creation of a new democratic political culture from scratch, assigning the Revolution's greatest meaning here, in a political culture. In the latter study she works with a somewhat Freudian interpretation, the political Revolution as a whole being seen as an enormous
dysfunctional family A dysfunctional family is a family in which conflict, misbehavior, and often child neglect or abuse and sometimes even all of the above on the part of individual parents occur continuously and regularly, leading other members to accommodate suc ...
haunted by patricide: Louis as father, Marie-Antoinette as mother, and the revolutionaries as an unruly mob of brothers.


François Furet

François Furet François Furet (; 27 March 1927 – 12 July 1997) was a French historian and president of the Saint-Simon Foundation, best known for his books on the French Revolution. From 1985 to 1997, Furet was a professor of French history at the University ...
(1927–1997) was the leading figure in the rejection of the "classic" or "Marxist" interpretation. Desan (2000) stated he "seemed to emerge the victor from the bicentennial, both in the media and in historiographic debates." A disillusioned ex-Communist, he published his ''La Révolution Française'' in 1965–66. It marked his transition from revolutionary leftist politics to liberal center-left position, and reflected his ties to the social-science-oriented Annales School. He then moved to the right, re-examining the Revolution from the perspective of 20th century totalitarianism (as exemplified by Hitler and Stalin). His ''Penser la Révolution Française'' (1978; translated as ''Interpreting the French Revolution'' 1981) was an influential book that led many intellectuals to reevaluate Communism and the Revolution as inherently totalitarian and anti-democratic. Looking at modern French Communism he stressed the close resemblance between the 1960s and 1790s, with both favoring the inflexible and rote ideological discourse in party cells where decisions were made unanimously in a manipulated direct democracy. Furet further suggested that popularity of the Far Left to many French intellectuals was itself a result of their commitment to the ideals of the French Revolution. Working much of the year at the University of Chicago after 1979, Furet also rejected the Annales School, with its emphasis on very long-term structural factors, and emphasized intellectual history. Influenced by Alexis de Tocqueville and Augustin Cochin, Furet argues that Frenchmen must stop seeing the revolution as the key to all aspects of modern French history. His works include ''Interpreting the French Revolution'' (1981), a historiographical overview of what has preceded him and ''A Critical Dictionary of the French Revolution'' (1989).


Others

Some other modern historians include: *
Marcel Gauchet Marcel Gauchet (; born 1946) is a French historian, philosopher, and sociologist. He is professor emeritus of the Centre de recherches politiques Raymond Aron at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales and head of the periodical ''Le D ...
(b. 1946) – Author of ''La Révolution des droits de l'homme'' (1989) and ''La Révolution des pouvoirs'' (1995). * Patrice Higonnet – Author of ''Goodness Beyond Virtue: Jacobins in the French Revolution'' (1998). *
Owen Connelly Owen Sergeson "Mike" Connelly Jr. (29 January 1924 – 12 July 2011), who published as Owen Connelly, was an American historian who specialized in military history, especially the Napoleonic wars The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a serie ...
(1924–2011) – ''The French Revolution and Napoleonic Era'' (1993). * Henry Heller – Author of "The Bourgeois Revolution in France: 1789–1815"; his work maintains a defence of the Classic (Marxist) Interpretation of the Revolution. * Alan Forrest (historian) (b. 1945) - Author of ''The French Revolution'' (1995) and numerous works on the social and military history. *
Olwen Hufton Dame Olwen Hufton, (born 1938) is a British historian of early modern Europe and a pioneer of social history and of women's history. She is an expert on early modern, western European comparative socio-cultural history with special emphasis on ...
(b. 1938) – Writes on women in history; her principal work on the Revolution is ''Women and the Limits of Citizenship in the French Revolution'' (1999). * Dale K. Van Kley (b. 1941) – Historian of religion, particularly in 18th century France.Dale Van Kley
, Ohio State University * Jeremy D. Popkin (b. 1948) – ''A New World Begins: The History of the French Revolution'' (2019) *
Mark Steel Mark Steel (born 4 July 1960) is an English author, broadcaster, stand-up comedian and newspaper columnist. He has made many appearances on radio and television shows as a guest panellist, and has written regular columns in ''The Guardian'', ' ...
(b. 1960) – Columnist and comedian; authored the humorous and accessible ''Vive La Revolution'' (2003). *
Jon Elster Jon Elster (; born 22 February 1940, Oslo) is a Norwegian philosopher and political theorist who holds the Robert K. Merton professorship of Social Science at Columbia University. He received his PhD in social science from the École Normale Su ...
(b. 1940) – ''France before 1789: The Unraveling of an Absolutist Regime'' (2020). * Colin Jones – ''The Fall of Robespierre: 24 Hours in Revolutionary Paris'' (2021).


Bibliography

Works mentioned, by date of first publication: * * * * * * * * Usually translated as ''The Old Regime and the French Revolution''. * * * Introductory part translated as ''Europe under the Old Regime'' (1947). * Aulard, François-Alphonse. ''The French Revolution, a Political History, 1789–1804'' (4 vol. 3rd ed. 1901; English translation 1910)
volume 1 1789–1792 online Volume 2 1792–95 online
* * * * * * Translated as ''The Great Fear of 1789'' (1973). * Translated as ''The Coming of the French Revolution'' (1947). * * Translated in two volumes: ''The French Revolution from its origins to 1793'' (1962), and ''The French Revolution from 1793 to 1799'' (1967). * * * Translated as ''The People's Armies'' (1987). * Translated as ''The Sans-Culottes'' (1972). * Translated as ''Interpreting the French Revolution'' (1981). * * * * Translated as ''A Critical Dictionary of the French Revolution'' (1989). * * * * * * * * * * *


References


Further reading

* * * Bell, David A., and Yair Mintzker, eds. ''Rethinking the age of revolutions: France and the birth of the modern world'' (Oxford UP, 2018. * * * * * * * * * * * rejects Marxist models * covers the older studies. * * * * D'Antuono, Giuseppina. "Historiographical heritages: Denis Diderot and the men of the French Revolution." ''Diciottesimo Secolo'' 6 (2021): 161-168
online
* . Basic survey of the historiography * * * Desan, Suzanne. "Recent Historiography on the French Revolution and Gender." ''Journal of Social History'' 52.3 (2019): 566-574
online
* Disch, Lisa. "How could Hannah Arendt glorify the American Revolution and revile the French? Placing On Revolution in the historiography of the French and American Revolutions." ''European Journal of Political Theory'' 10.3 (2011): 350–71. * Douthwaite, Julia V. “On Seeing the Forest through the Trees: Finding Our Way through Revolutionary Politics, History, and Art.” ''Eighteenth-Century Studies'' 43#2 2010, pp. 259–63
online
* Doyle, William. ''The Oxford history of the French revolution'' (Oxford UP, 2018). * * Dunne, John. "Fifty Years of Rewriting the French Revolution: Signposts Main Landmarks and Current Directions in the Historiographical Debate," ''History Review.'' (1998) pp. 8ff. * Edelstein, Melvin. ''The French Revolution and the Birth of Electoral Democracy'' (Routledge, 2016). * * Farmer, Paul. ''France Reviews its Revolutionary Origins'' (1944) * Friguglietti, James, and Barry Rothaus, "Interpreting vs. Understanding the Revolution: François Furet and Albert Soboul," ''Consortium on Revolutionary Europe 1750–1850: Proceedings, 1987'' (1987) Vol. 17, pp. 23–36 * Furet, François and Mona Ozouf, eds. ''A Critical Dictionary of the French Revolution'' (1989), 1120pp; long essays by scholars; strong on history of ideas and historiography (esp pp. 881–1034
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17 essays on leading historians, pp. 881–1032 * Furet, François. ''Interpreting the French revolution'' (1981). * Germani, Ian, and Robin Swayles. ''Symbols, myths and images of the French Revolution''. University of Regina Publications. 1998. * Gershoy, Leo. ''The French Revolution and Napoleon'' (2nd ed. 1964), scholarly survey * Geyl, Pieter. ''Napoleon for and Against'' (1949), 477 pp; reviews the positions of major historians regarding Napoleon * Guillaume, Lancereau. "Unruly Memory and Historical Order: The Historiography of the French Revolution between Historicism and Presentism (1881-1914)." ''História da Historiografia: International Journal of Theory and History of Historiography'' 14.36 (2021): 225-25
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* * Hanson, Paul R. ''Contesting the French Revolution'' (1999)
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combines analytic history and historiography * * Heller, Henry. ''The Bourgeois Revolution in France (1789–1815)'' (Berghahn Books, 2006) defends Marxist model * * Hobsbawm, Eric J. ''Echoes of the Marseillaise: two centuries look back on the French Revolution'' (Rutgers University Press, 1990) by an English Marxist } * Hutton, Patrick H. "The role of memory in the historiography of the french revolution." ''History and Theory'' 30.1 (1991): 56–69. * Israel, Jonathan. ''Revolutionary Ideas: An Intellectual History of the French Revolution from The Rights of Man to Robespierre'' (2014) * Jones, Rhys. "Time Warps During the French Revolution." ''Past & Present'' 254.1 (2022): 87-125. *Kafker, Frank A. and James M. Laux, eds. ''The French Revolution: Conflicting Interpretations'' (5th ed. 2002) * Kaplan, Steven Laurence. ''Farewell, Revolution: The Historians' Feud, France, 1789/1989'' (1996), focus on historian
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* Kaplan, Steven Laurence. ''Farewell, Revolution: Disputed Legacies, France, 1789/1989'' (1995); focus on bitter debates re 200th anniversar
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* Kates, Gary, ed. ''The French Revolution: Recent Debates and New Controversies'' (2nd ed. 2005
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* Kim, Minchul. "Volney and the French Revolution." Journal of the History of Ideas 79.2 (2018): 221–42. * * Lewis, Gwynne. ''The French Revolution: Rethinking the Debate'' (1993) 142 pp * Lyons, Martyn. ''Napoleon Bonaparte and the legacy of the French Revolution'' (Macmillan, 1994) * McManners, J. "The Historiography of the French Revolution," in A. Goodwin, editor, The ''New Cambridge Modern History: volume VIII: The American and French Revolutions, 1763–93'' (1965) 618–5
online
* * * Minchul, Kim. “Volney and the French Revolution.” ''Journal of the History of Ideas'' 79#2 (April 2018): 221–42. * Parker, Noel. ''Portrayals of Revolution: Images, Debates and Patterns of thought on the French Revolution'' (1990) * * Rigney, Ann. ''The Rhetoric of Historical Representation: Three Narrative Histories of the French Revolution'' (Cambridge UP, 2002) covers Alphonse de Lamartine, Jules Michelet and Louis Blanc. * * Scott, Samuel F. and Barry Rothaus, eds. ''Historical Dictionary of the French Revolution, 1789–1799'' (2 vol 1984), short essays by scholars * * sociological approach * Sole, Jacques. "Historiography of the French Revolution," in Michael Bentley, ed. ''Companion to Historiography'' (1997) ch 19 pp. 509–25 * * * Tarrow, Sidney. “‘Red of Tooth and Claw’: The French Revolution and the Political ProcessThen and Now.” ''French Politics, Culture & Society'' 29#1 2011, pp. 93–110
online
* Walton, Charles. "Why the neglect? Social rights and French Revolutionary historiography." ''French History'' 33.4 (2019): 503–19. * Williamson, George S. "Retracing the Sattelzeit: thoughts on the historiography of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic eras." ''Central European History'' 51.1 (2018): 66-7
online


External links


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French Revolution The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are considere ...
French Revolution The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are considere ...