Revolutionary Ideas

An Intellectual History of the French Revolution from The Rights of Man to Robespierre

Jonathan Israel

• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Year: 2014
• Print ISBN: 9780691169712, 9780691151724
• eBook ISBN: 9781400849994
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Early Modern History
• Index: History

How the Radical Enlightenment inspired and shaped the French Revolution

Historians of the French Revolution used to take for granted what was also obvious to its contemporary observers—that the Revolution was shaped by the radical ideas of the Enlightenment. Yet in recent decades, scholars have argued that the Revolution was brought about by social forces, politics, economics, or culture—almost anything but abstract notions like liberty or equality. In Revolutionary Ideas, one of the world's leading historians of the Enlightenment restores the Revolution's intellectual history to its rightful central role. Drawing widely on primary sources, Jonathan Israel shows how the Revolution was set in motion by radical eighteenth-century doctrines, how these ideas divided revolutionary leaders into vehemently opposed ideological blocs, and how these clashes drove the turning points of the Revolution.

In this compelling account, the French Revolution stands once again as a culmination of the emancipatory and democratic ideals of the Enlightenment. That it ended in the Terror represented a betrayal of those ideas—not their fulfillment.

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• List of Figures
• Acknowledgments
• Prologue
• Chapter 1 Introduction
• Chapter 2 Revolution of the Press (1788–90)
• Chapter 3 From Estates-General to National Assembly (April–June 1789)
• Chapter 4 The Rights of Man: Summer and Autumn 1789
• Chapter 5 Democratizing the Revolution
• Chapter 6 Deadlock (November 1790–July 1791)
• Chapter 7 War with the Church (1788–92)
• Chapter 8 The Feuillant Revolution (July 1791–April 1792)
• Chapter 9 The “General Revolution” Begins (1791–92)
• Chapter 10 The Revolutionary Summer of 1792
• Chapter 11 Republicans Divided (September 1792–March 1793)
• Chapter 12 The “General Revolution” from Valmy to the Fall of Mainz (1792–93)
• Chapter 13 The World’s First Democratic Constitution (1793)
• Chapter 14 Education: Securing the Revolution
• Chapter 15 Black Emancipation
• Chapter 16 Robespierre’s Putsch (June 1793)
• Chapter 17 The Summer of 1793: Overturning the Revolution’s Core Values
• Chapter 18 DeChristianization (1793–94)
• Chapter 19 “The Terror” (September 1793–March 1794)
• Chapter 20 The Terror’s Last Months (March–July 1794)
• Chapter 21 Thermidor
• Chapter 22 PostThermidor (1795–97)
• Chapter 23 The “General Revolution” (1795–1800): Holland, Italy, and the Levant
• Chapter 24 The Failed Revolution (1797–99)
• Chapter 25 Conclusion: The Revolution as the Outcome of the Radical Enlightenment
• Cast of Main Participants
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index