Experiencing the French Revolution

Recent debates around the French Revolution have questioned the need for an overall paradigm of interpretation, as the certainties underpinning both ‘classic’ and ‘revisionist’ views have faded. In Experiencing the French Revolutionauthors argue against a single ‘paradigm quest’, in favour of a plurality of approaches to underscore the diverse ways in which the turbulent changes of late eighteenth-century France can be explored.

From broad cultural trends to very personal trajectories, a team of experts offers fresh perspectives on the individual and collective experience of Revolution, both within and outside France. Using a range of methodologies, including biographical studies of key individuals and groups, archival studies of structures and institutions, and new sources available from digital humanities archives, contributors provide: 

• new insights into the clandestine book trade of pre-revolutionary France, and the surprising effectiveness of Louis XVI’s state control
• a reappraisal of Robespierre, whose opinions were shaped and transformed by years of upheaval
• an exploration of how revolutionary situations inspired both dissent and discipline within the new citizen armies
• an analysis of the revolutionary shockwaves felt beyond France, and how its currents were exploited for national political ends in Belgium, England and Wales.