Understanding the French Revolution - Softcover

Soboul, Albert

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0850363810 ISBN 13: 9780850363814

Publisher: The Merlin Press Ltd, 1991

Synopsis

'Understanding the French Revolution' by Albert Soboul deals first with the pre-Revolutionary situation, and traces the evolution of the ideas of enlightened despotism, the complex character of the class structure of France, the emergence of capitalism within the feudal relations of production and the ideas of popular democracy current in 1789. The author then turns to the unfolding events of the Revolution, the attitude to work of the artisan and labourer, the dispute over maximum wage legislation, the social background of those involved in the Babeuf conspiracy, the influence of relgiion on the popular culture, the attitude to the 'Red Priests' and the problems of regional and national loyalty. The work as a whole gives a significant insight into the nature of the French Revolution of 1789. Albert Soboul was one of the best known Marxist historians of the French Revolution and was until his death in 1982 a professor at the Sorbonne. Contents: Reform or Revolution? On the historical function of historical absolutism. 2. Classes and Class Struggle during the Revolution. 3. Political Aspects of Popular Democracy during Year II. 4. From Feudalism to Capitalism; 5. Problems of the Revolutionary State; 6. Problems of Work in Year II; 7. The "Maximum" of Parisian Wages and 9 Thermidor; 8. Sectional Personnel and Babouvist Personnel; 9. Religious Sentiments and Popular Cults: Patriot Saints and Martyrs of Liberty; 10. On the "Red Priests" in the French Revolution; 11. Militant Women of the Parisian Sections (Year II); 12. From the Ancient Régime to the Revolution: The regional problem and social realities; 13. From the Ancien Régime to the Empire: The national problem and social realities; 14. Jaurés, Mathiez and the History of the French Revolution; 15. Georges Lefebvre (1874-1959); 16. Classical Revolutionary Historiography and Revisionist Endeavors; 17. The French Revolution in the History of the Contemporary World

Edition details

• Publisher: The Merlin Press Ltd
• Publication date: 1991
• ISBN 10: 0850363810
• ISBN 13: 9780850363814
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 332