Revolutionary Ideas (ebook)

Argumento de Revolutionary Ideas (ebook)

"[A]dvances an erudite and persuasive argument. . . . Israel's categorization of the various revolutionary factions offers fascinating new insights, and his knack for uncovering interesting but neglected individuals and texts is second to none . . . rich and thought provoking book. It is remarkable and significant."--Rachel Hammersley, Times Literary Supplement

"A racy account of the concepts that shaped the French Revolution and its people. . . . The book leaves the reader with a strong impression of the power of ideas that unlock political energy and the strength of leadership needed to withstand fickle popular opinion."--Tom Watson, New Statesman

"[M]ajestic."--Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe, Trinidad and Tobago News

"Israel, a professor of modern European history at Princeton, is a world authority on the 18th-century Enlightenment. Here he constructs a bold and brilliantly argued case that the 1789 French Revolution was propelled by the clash of innovative political doctrines that supported or contested Enlightenment values."--Tony Barber, Financial Times

"Combining erudition and verve, Revolutionary Ideas is an exciting, bold, valuable, and courageous book that should have a wide readership. A veritable tour de force, it fundamentally reconceptualizes the French Revolution. Arguing that ideas caused the revolution, propelled it forward, and constituted its essence, Jonathan Israel provides a wealth of detail about the little-known but fascinating characters who made up the radical wing of the revolutionary leadership."--Helena Rosenblatt, the Graduate Center, City University of New York

"There is nothing else quite like this book. It not only crowns one of the major individual history projects of the past century but also serves as a stimulus to fresh debate on the greatest and most fundamentally important of all revolutions."--William Doyle, author of The Oxford History of the French Revolution

"Overwhelmingly impressive."--Peter Watson, Times

"[W]ith typical boldness Israel invites us to reconceptualise our very idea of the Revolution."--Jeremy Jennings, Standpoint

"[P]acked with details . . . [Revolutionary Ideas] is part of Israel's major project to give the Enlightenment, especially the Radical Enlightenment as he calls it, new luster."--NRC Handelsblad

"Israel, author of the pathbreaking studies on the Dutch Republic, European Jews, and more recently the radical Enlightenment, now turns his attention to the French Revolution, arguing that the underlying cause was ideological--namely, the impact of the radical Enlightenment resulting from the work of philosophers Denis Diderot, Claude Adrien Helvetius, and Paul-Henry Thiry, Baron d'Holbach. . . . Israel takes them at their word, painstakingly poring through voluminous revolutionary newspapers and the archives parlementaires, records of the revolutionary national assemblies. . . . This significant and nuanced study is a major reinterpretation."--Choice

Winner of the 2015 PROSE Award in European & World History, Association of American Publishers

"[C]losely argued. . . . Israel can be understood as a historian in the long liberal tradition stretching back to Madame de Stael, who herself witnessed the revolution and saw it as a story of the betrayal of liberty."--Ruth Scurr, Wall Street Journal0List of Figures vii
Acknowledgments ix
Prologue 1
Chapter 1 Introduction 6
Chapter 2 Revolution of the Press (1788-90) 30
Chapter 3 From Estates-General to National Assembly (April-June 1789) 53
Chapter 4 The Rights of Man: Summer and Autumn 1789 72
Chapter 5 Democratizing the Revolution 103
Chapter 6 Deadlock (November 1790-July 1791) 141
Chapter 7 War with the Church (1788-92) 180
Chapter 8 The Feuillant Revolution ( July 1791-April 1792) 204
Chapter 9 The "General Revolution" Begins (1791-92) 231
Chapter 10 The Revolutionary Summer of 1792 246
Chapter 11 Republicans Divided (September 1792-March 1793) 278
Chapter 12 The "General Revolution" from Valmy to the Fall of Mainz (1792-93) 316
Chapter 13 The World's First Democratic Constitution (1793) 345
Chapter 14 Education: Securing the Revolution 374
Chapter 15 Black Emancipation 396
Chapter 16 Robespierre's Putsch ( June 1793) 420
Chapter 17 The Summer of 1793: Overturning the Revolution's Core Values 450
Chapter 18 De-Christianization (1793-94) 479
Chapter 19 "The Terror" (September 1793-March 1794) 503
Chapter 20 The Terror's Last Months (March-July 1794) 545
Chapter 21 Thermidor 574
Chapter 22 Post-Thermidor (1795-97) 593
Chapter 23 The "General Revolution" (1795-1800): Holland, Italy, and the Levant 635
Chapter 24 The Failed Revolution (1797-99) 670
Chapter 25 Conclusion: The Revolution as the Outcome of the Radical Enlightenment 695
Cast of Main Participants 709
Notes 733
Bibliography 803
Index 833