Description
Book SynopsisFestivals and the French Revolution—the subject conjures up visions of goddesses of Liberty, strange celebrations of Reason, and the oddly pretentious cult of the Supreme Being. Every history of the period includes some mention of festivals; Ozouf shows us that they were much more than bizarre marginalia to the revolutionary process.
Trade ReviewOne of the most brilliant books about the French Revolution written in recent years. In a dazzling analysis of revolutionary festivals, Mona Ozouf takes up the question of why revolutionaries of all stripes seemed so obsessed with public celebration… An unusually powerful and readable work of serious history. -- Edward Berenson * Los Angeles Times Book Review *
Brilliantly conceived, cogently argued and a pleasure to read…this volume…was recognized at once as a work to reckon with, and Alan Sheridan’s luminous translation now makes it available in English. -- Eugen Weber * New York Times Book Review *
Ozouf’s remarkable insights into the festivals and the revolution…offer fresh ways of understanding the immense effort the revolutionaries made both to destroy the
ancien régime and to perpetuate an emerging secular, liberal order. -- Charles Rearick * American Historical Review *
One of the most magisterial and original contributions to the interpretation of the French Revolution to appear in this decade. -- Carla Hesse * Eighteenth-Century Studies *
Table of ContentsForeword by Lynn Hunt The Republican Calendar Brief Chronology of the French Revolution Introduction I. The History of the Revolutionary Festival The Revolution as Festival History of the Festivals, History of the Sects Boredom and Disgust II. The Festival of the Federation: Model and Reality Riot and Festival: The "Wild" Federations The Federative Festivals The Paris Federation A New Festival? The Festival of All the French? III. The Festival above the Parties: 1792 The Norm and the Exception Two Antagonistic Festivals? The Unity of Tragedy IV. Mockery and Revolution: 1793-1794 The "Other" Festival Where, When, with Whom? Reasonable Reason Violence and the Festival V. Return to the Enlightenment: 1794-1799 The "Happy Nation" The System of Brumaire, Year IV VI. The Festival and Space Space without Qualities The Symbolic Mapping-Out The Renovation of a Ceremonial Space: The Example of Caen The Resistance of Paris The Space-Time of the Revolution VII. The Festival and Time Beginning Dividing Up Commemorating Ending VIII. The Future of the Festival: Festival and Pedagogy "The Schools of the Mature Man" The Power of Images The Correct Use of Images Nothing Goes without Saying IX. Popular Life and the Revolutionary Festival A Shameful Ethnology History of a Failure Revolutionary Symbolism and Peasant Tradition The Mai sauvage A Pedagogical Tree From the Maypole to the Tree A Break X. The Revolutionary Festival: A Transfer of Sacrality Horror vacui The Meaning of a Few Borrowings The Meaning of Purging Abbreviations Notes Bibliography Index
