Robespierre (eBook)

The Man Who Divides Us the Most

Marcel Gauchet (Autor)

eBook Download: PDF

2022
224 Seiten
Princeton University Press (Verlag)
978-0-691-23495-3 (ISBN)

Infos

How Robespierre's career and legacy embody the dangerous contradictions of democracyMaximilien Robespierre (1758-1794) is arguably the most controversial and contradictory figure of the French Revolution, inspiring passionate debate like no other protagonist of those dramatic and violent events. The fervor of those who defend Robespierre the "e;Incorruptible,"e; who championed the rights of the people, is met with revulsion by those who condemn him as the bloodthirsty tyrant who sent people to the guillotine. Marcel Gauchet argues that he was both, embodying the glorious achievement of liberty as well as the excesses that culminated in the Terror.In much the same way that 1789 and 1793 symbolize the two opposing faces of the French Revolution, Robespierre's contradictions were the contradictions of the revolution itself. Robespierre was its purest incarnation, neither the defender of liberty who fell victim to the corrupting influence of power nor the tyrant who betrayed the principles of the revolution. Gauchet shows how Robespierre's personal transition from opposition to governance was itself an expression of the tragedy inherent in a revolution whose own prophetic ideals were impossible to implement.This panoramic book tells the story of how the man most associated with the founding of modern French democracy was also the first tyrant of that democracy, and it offers vital lessons for all democracies about the perpetual danger of tyranny.

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 8.3.2022
• Übersetzer: Malcolm DeBevoise
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Literatur ► Biografien / Erfahrungsberichte
• Themenwelt: Literatur ► Romane / Erzählungen
• Themenwelt: Sachbuch/Ratgeber ► Geschichte / Politik
• Themenwelt: Geschichte ► Allgemeine Geschichte ► Neuzeit (bis 1918)
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Geschichte ► Regional- / Ländergeschichte
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Philosophie
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Politik / Verwaltung ► Politische Theorie
• Schlagworte: 10 August (French Revolution) • accomplice • Active and passive citizens • Advocacy • Agency (sociology) • Atheism • attempt • black legend • Caen • Calculation • Camille Desmoulins • Capital punishment • Christianity • Committee of General Security • Committee of Public Safety • confidence • Cordeliers • counter-revolutionary • Criticism • Decree • Deliberation • Democracy • despotism • Determination • Dictatorship • Economic Life • Embodiment of Evil • Explanation • fanaticism • freedom of speech • Georges Danton • Girondins • Government • hatred • hostility • Imminent peril • impunity • incorruptibility • incumbent • In Death • indictment • Individualism • innuendo • Institution • interdependence • jacobin • Jacobin (politics) • John Mearsheimer • Journalist (Russian magazine) • Jurisprudence • Legislator • Legislature • Louis Antoine de Saint-Just • Maximilien Robespierre • Narcissism • newspaper • Obedience (human behavior) • Obligation • Paris Commune • Patriotism • petitioner • Political organization • political revolution • political spectrum • Politics • Pontiff • Prejudice • provisional government • Public morality • punishment • Raymond Aron • Reactionary • Regulation • Reign of Terror • Reims • Religion • Render unto Caesar • representative assembly • resentment • rhetoric • Right of conquest • rights • Rule of Law • sans-culottes • September Massacres • shackle • show trial • Sincerity • Social History • Social Law • Sovereign People • Sovereignty • Suggestion • The mountain • The Public Interest • Thermidorian Reaction • Uncertainty • unrest • Veto • Women's March on Versailles
• ISBN-10: 0-691-23495-7 / 0691234957
• ISBN-13: 978-0-691-23495-3 / 9780691234953