1. REVOLUTIONS HISTORIOGRAPY
France

2. FRENCH REVOLUTION: HISTORIOGRAPHY
Revisionist
Marxist
Cultural interpretations
‘The origins of the revolution are one history; the history of the [writing about] Revolution is another history’ (Mornet)

3. FRENCH REVOLUTION: MARXIST PERSPECTIVE
The Revolution was both necessary and inevitable: Class struggle drives history forward
Ambitious capitalist bourgeoisie striving to share power (from Feudalism to Capitalism, birth-right replaced by utility and merit)
Explored lives and experiences of working people: wrote ‘history from below’

4. FRENCH REVOLUTION: REVISIONIST PERSPECTIVES
Challenged Marxist idea of historical determinism and class struggle
Claims there was no capitalist bourgeoisie and no unified group of nobles resisting them (based on exploration of propertied classes)
The collapse of the ancien regime was financial rather than social
Often minimalist: the revolution did not bring great change for most people

5. FRENCH REVOLUTION: CULTURAL INTERPRETATIONS
Focus on the birth of public opinion
Increasing number of people becoming educated and involved in national affairs (not just bourgeoisie)
Explores the varying ways in which political ideas were expressed, particularly the desacralisation of the monarchy
While not seeking to ignore the devastation of the Revolution, this perspective seeks to focus on its energy and hopefulness

6. HANDY QUOTES FOR FRANCE: AREA OF STUDY 1

7. Lefebvre on the ‘Coming of the French Revolution’
France
AOS1
Sees the revolution as occurring in waves:’ ideas often applies to more than one aspect of the Revolution. For example:
ARISTOCRATIC REVOLT:
Nobles refuse Louis financial reforms
BOURGEOIS REVOLT:
3RD estate declare national assembly and to create constitution
POPULAR MOVEMENT:
‘Sans Cullotes’ rebel against Monarchy
PEASANT REVOLT:
Peasants
The Assembly of Notables
Estates-General
Tennis Court Oath
Storming of the Bastille
The Assembly of Notables
Lefebvre would argue that revolution was inevitable, and that the tennis court represented the second wave of revolt in France wherein the bourgeois....

8. Rudé on the Assembly of the Notables
France
AOS1
Firstly, consider that a historians’ ideas often applies to more than one aspect of the Revolution. For example:
‘The Notables refused to endorse ministerial reforms because their own cherished fiscal immunities were threatened.’ (Rudé)
Assembly of the Notables
Dismissal of Parlements
Cahiers de doleances
Estates General

9. Forrest on the Estates General
France
AOS1
Firstly, consider that a historians’ ideas often applies to more than one aspect of the Revolution. For example:
‘The deputies who assembled at Versailles were not all obsessed with the interest and status of their order; what united and divided them was often ideology , the way in which they regarded institutions and social structures…’ (Forrest)
Cahiers de Doleances
Estates General
Creation of National Assembly
Tennis Court Oath

10. Bosher on the National Assembly
France
AOS1
Firstly, consider that a historians’ ideas often applies to more than one aspect of the Revolution. For example:
‘The National Assembly did not speak for all Frenchmen but only for a certain public.’ (Bosher)
Tennis Court Oath
Storming of the Bastilles
The Great Fear
August Decrees

11. Sweeney et. al on the Storming of the Bastille
France
AOS1
Firstly, consider that a historians’ ideas often applies to more than one aspect of the Revolution. For example:
‘The activities of the crowd of Paris on the journee of the fall of the Bastille had a far wider significance than just the demolition of royal tyranny’ (Sweeney et.al)
Storming of the Bastille
National Assembly
The Great Fear
August Decrees

12. Lefebvre on the Great Fear
France
AOS1
Firstly, consider that a historians’ ideas often applies to more than one aspect of the Revolution. For example:
‘It allowed the peasantry to achieve a full realisation of its strength and played part in the preparations for the night of 4 August (1789). On these grounds alone, it must count as one of the most important episodes in the history of the French nation’ (Lefebvre’
Storming of the Bastille
The Great Fear
Surrender of privileges (August 4)
August Decrees

13. HANDY QUOTES FOR FRANCE: AREA OF STUDY 2

14. Jones, McPhee and Rudé describe the DORMAC
France
AOS2
Firstly, consider that a historians’ ideas often applies to more than one aspect of the Revolution. For example:
The Declaration of the rights and man and citizens was above all, a statement of bourgeois idealism.
Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen

15. Rudé on the Women’s march to Versailles
France
AOS2
Firstly, consider that a historians’ ideas often applies to more than one aspect of the Revolution. For example:
‘The march to Versailles on 5 October, by ending in the King’s return to the capital, completed the revolution of July’ (Rudé)
Storming of the Bastille
August Decrees
Women’s march to Versailles
National Assembly

16. Bosher on the Constitution of 1791 (Legislative Assembly)
France
AOS2
Firstly, consider that a historians’ ideas often applies to more than one aspect of the Revolution. For example:
King, ministers, and a majority of deputies shared the enlightened principle of social mobility they had learned from philosophes’ (Bosher)
DORMAC
Reforms of National Assembly
Estates General (AOS1)
The Philosophes (AOS1)

17. Doyle on the Civil Constitution of the Clergy
France
AOS2
Firstly, consider that a historians’ ideas often applies to more than one aspect of the Revolution. For example:
‘For the first time, it [the national Legislative Assembly] forced fellow citizens to choose: to declare themselves publically for or against the new order’ (Doyle)
Legislative Assembly
Reforms of National Assembly
Civil Constitution of the Clergy
Counter-Revolution

18. Thackett on the King’s Flight to Varennes
France
AOS2
Firstly, consider that a historians’ ideas often applies to more than one aspect of the Revolution. For example:
‘...the King had greatly contributed to the destabilisation of the state and the society’ (Thackett)
Constitution of 1791
Flight to Varennes
Champ de Mars
Invasion of the Tiulleries

19. Sharma describes the Champ de Mars
France
AOS2
Firstly, consider that a historians’ ideas often applies to more than one aspect of the Revolution. For example:
‘ a central truth of the French Revolution: its dependence on organised killing to accomplish political ends’ (Schama)
Massacre at the Champs de Mars
Invasion of the Tuilleries
September Massacres
Civil War: The Vendée, Lyons etc

20. Sharma on the execution of Louis XVI
France
AOS2
Firstly, consider that a historians’ ideas often applies to more than one aspect of the Revolution. For example:
‘...it was the death of the King that was made to kill Kingship’ (Sharma)
Convention of 1792
Invasion of the Tuilleries
Champ de Mars massacre
Counter Revolution and the Terror

21. Bosher on the execution of Louis XVI
France
AOS2
Firstly, consider that a historians’ ideas often applies to more than one aspect of the Revolution. For example:
Republicanism in France was a result of the Revolution, not the cause of it’ (Bosher)
Massacre at the Champs de Mars
Invasion of the Tuilleries
Convention of 1792
Civil War: The Vendée, Lyons etc

22. Sharma on the Committee of Public Safety
France
AOS2
Firstly, consider that a historians’ ideas often applies to more than one aspect of the Revolution. For example:
‘The committee of public safety rapidly turned itself into the most concentrated state machine France had ever experienced’ (Sharma).
The Committee of Public Safety
The Terror
Counter Revolution
Robespierre
Marat

23. A COUPLE OF HANDY GENERAL QUOTES FOR FRANCE

24. Soboul (marxist) summarises the outcome of the French Revolution
Firstly, consider that a historians’ ideas often applies to more than one aspect of the Revolution. For example:
‘The French Revolution demonstrated historical law of transition from feudalism to modern capitalism’ (Soboul)
Any question that draws attention to the class based nature of the French Revolution

25. Taylor (revisionist) summarises the outcome of the French Revolution
Firstly, consider that a historians’ ideas often applies to more than one aspect of the Revolution. For example:
‘the bourgeoisie was far from the united, self conscious and self-confident class that has often been assumed’ (Taylor)
Any question that draws attention to the class based nature of the French Revolution