Citizens: A Chronicle of the French Revolution

Citizens: A Chronicle of the French Revolution
AuthorSimon Schama
LanguageEnglish
SubjectThe French Revolution
PublisherRandom House
Publication date
1989
Publication placeUnited Kingdom
Media typePrint (Hardcover and Paperback)
ISBN0-679-72610-1
OCLC20454968
944.04 20
LC ClassDC148 .S43 1990

Citizens: A Chronicle of the French Revolution is a book by the historian Simon Schama, published in 1989, the bicentenary of the French Revolution.
"The terror," declared Schama in the book, "was merely 1789 with a higher body count; violence ... was not just an unfortunate side effect ... it was the Revolution's source of collective energy. It was what made the Revolution revolutionary."[1] In short, “From the very beginning [...] violence was the motor of revolution.”[2] Schama considers that the French Revolutionary Wars were the logical corollary of the universalistic language of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, and of the universalistic principles of the Revolution which led to inevitable conflict with old-regime Europe.

  1. ^ Doyle, p. 102.
  2. ^ Schama, Simon. Citizens. Quoted in: Davies, Norman. Europe: A History. Pimlico (1997), p. 690.

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