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Chargement... Leaders of the French Revolutionpar J. M. Thompson
   Aucun Actuellement, il n'y a pas de discussions au sujet de ce livre.  imlee | Jul 7, 2020 |   Leaders of the French Revolution may not have been the best introduction to this part of history — it readily assumes fairly thorough knowledge of the events of the 1790s and was written in 1923 so presumably a fuller picture now exists than is painted by Thompson within the book. But despite those problems the book is well written and at least gives an insight into the men behind the names. As the title suggests the book concerns itself with some of the key men involved in the Revolution. Thompson is a historian's historian, eschewing any source that isn't primary or untainted by bias. As such the chapters on each of the men is quite short, eleven men's lives are covered in rather less than three hundred pages, and that with some overlap since these men plotted and worked with and against one another. But then these men rarely had long lives — only three of the eleven lived to see the end of the Revolution in 1799, two in exile and one instigating the coup d'etat that saw Napoleon's rise to power. The rest of them find themselves on an unhappy conveyor belt heading towards the guillotine, oftentimes managing to wrestle a fellow politician to the front of the queue, only to realise that puts themselves second in line. Thompson disagrees that the Terror was really that terrifying for the majority of the population, but for the politicians it really was a fatal game. To lead the Revolution was to proscribe your political enemies before they proscribed you. And proscription in Revolutionary France almost always meant an appointment with "Madame Guillotine". (  ) leezeebee | Jul 6, 2020 | ) Schmerguls | Feb 9, 2008 | aucune critique | ajouter une critique
1789-1795 were years of revolutionary drama in France-of struggle protest, war-fever, exasperation, terror, ambition and bloodshed. Few of the many who are remembered from the time were great men, but they lived under the microscope of great times, which gave to their most insignificant qualities portentous proportions. Perhaps, too, their age and country encouraged variety and extravagance of character, few there are few periods of history so rich in personalities. Of the eleven men chosen by J. M. Thompson for study, only three (Siey?s, Lafayette and Dumouriez) survived the Revolution, and lived to see its cynical apotheosis in the Napoleonic Empire. Of the others, Mirabeau died in 1791 and Louvet in 1797, while the remainder-Brissot, Marat, Danton, Fabre, Robespierre and St. Just-were murdered, executed or put to death. J. M. Thompson writes in his introduction, 'But to all of them the Revolution was an overwhelming experience. What did they do in it? What did they think of it? Let us see.' Aucune description trouvée dans une bibliothèque |
Discussion en coursAucunCouvertures populaires  
 Google Books — Chargement...GenresClassification décimale de Melvil (CDD)944.04History and Geography Europe France and region France Revolution 1789-1804Classification de la Bibliothèque du CongrèsÉvaluationMoyenne: (3)
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Leaders of the French Revolution may not have been the best introduction to this part of history — it readily assumes fairly thorough knowledge of the events of the 1790s and was written in 1923 so presumably a fuller picture now exists than is painted by Thompson within the book. But despite those problems the book is well written and at least gives an insight into the men behind the names.
As the title suggests the book concerns itself with some of the key men involved in the Revolution. Thompson is a historian's historian, eschewing any source that isn't primary or untainted by bias. As such the chapters on each of the men is quite short, eleven men's lives are covered in rather less than three hundred pages, and that with some overlap since these men plotted and worked with and against one another. But then these men rarely had long lives — only three of the eleven lived to see the end of the Revolution in 1799, two in exile and one instigating the coup d'etat that saw Napoleon's rise to power. The rest of them find themselves on an unhappy conveyor belt heading towards the guillotine, oftentimes managing to wrestle a fellow politician to the front of the queue, only to realise that puts themselves second in line. Thompson disagrees that the Terror was really that terrifying for the majority of the population, but for the politicians it really was a fatal game. To lead the Revolution was to proscribe your political enemies before they proscribed you. And proscription in Revolutionary France almost always meant an appointment with "Madame Guillotine". (