Description
Book SynopsisThe classic history of the French Revolution by the assassinated socialist leader, Jean Jaurès
Trade Review'Tantalizing prose... The lively sense of being 'inside' the Assembly or the meetings of the Paris City Council leaps from the page'
-- 'Times Literary Supplement'
'The death of a single human being can mean a great battle lost for all humanity: the murder of Jaurès was one such disaster'
-- Romain Rolland
'We can say today that every revolutionary party, every oppressed people, every oppressed working class can claim Jaures, his memory, his example, and his person, for our own'
-- Leon Trotsky
'Jaurès' brilliant analysis is as refreshing and controversial today as it was over a century ago. It resonates with the passion and eloquence of this great political leader while at the same time sustaining a rigourous Marxist analysis of the social and economic forces behind the Revolution. Its appearance in this edition is to be warmly welcomed'
-- Peter McPhee, Emeritus Professor, University of Melbourne
'A classic of historical writing which laid the foundations for so many later accounts of the French Revolution. Jaurès vividly depicts the drama of the Revolution, the triumphs and the setbacks, the bloodshed and the hope, but always with an eye to the future, to how the Revolution opened the way to human emancipation'
-- Ian Birchall, historian and author of The Spectre of Babeuf
Table of ContentsIntroduction by Henry Heller
Translator’s Note
1. Introduction
2. The Causes of the Revolution
3. July 14, 1789
4. National Lands
5. The Revolutionary 'Journées'
6. The Flight to Varennes
7. The Insurrection of August 10, 1792
8. The September Massacres
9. The Battle of Valmy
10. The Trial of the King
11. The Enragés against the High Cost of Living
12. The Revolution of May 31 and June 2, 1793
13. Marat’s Assassination
14. Dechristianization
15. The Dictatorship of Public Safety and the Fight against the Factions
16. The Terror and Fall of Robespierre
17. How Should We Judge the Revolutionaries?
Index
