Description
Book SynopsisThe massacre exposed the widely differing ways in which post-Revolutionary Parisians construed the word "patriotism", and why the great Revolutionary goal of political unanimity was so elusive. On 17 July 1791 the revolutionary National Guard of Paris opened fire on a crowd of protesters: citizens believing themselves patriots trying to save France from the reinstatement of a traitor king. To the National Guard and theirpolitical superiors the protesters were the dregs of the people, brigands paid by counter-revolutionary aristocrats. Politicians and journalists declared the National Guard the patriots, and their action a heroic defence of the fledgling Constitution. Under the Jacobin Republic of 1793, however, this "massacre" was regarded as a high crime, a moment of truth in which a corrupt elite exposed its treasonable designs. This detailed study of the events of July 1791 and their antecedents seeks to understand how Parisians of different classes understood "patriotism", and how it was that their different answers drove them to confront each other on the Champ de Mars. David Andress is Professor of Modern History at the School of Social, Historical and Literary Studies, University of Portsmouth.
Trade ReviewA creditable and serious job, which helps considerably our understanding of the relationship between the language of the street and popular revolutionary politics. * HISTORY *
Table of ContentsIntroduction The people of Paris and their historians Aristocrats, priests and brigands: January-February 1791 Guards, spies and commissaires: policing the capital Plots, pamphlets and crowds: February-April 1791 The Saint-Cloud affair and the wages movement Before and after Varennes: the rise in popular hostility The Constitution in the balance: events after the king's return 17 July 1791: massacre and consternation After the bloody field: commentaries, narratives and dissent
