948
pages, Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., ISBN-13: 978-0394559483
Citizens: A
Chronicle of the French Revolution
is a truly wonderful example of narrative historical writing, a “tremendous
performance” to borrow a favorite expression of Simon Schama. The author
prefers a more old-fashioned interpretation of the French revolution, which
presents the revolution as a drama and focuses on the characters that determine
the unravelling of the plot. This choice provides the book with all of the most
memorable stories – such as the royal family’s tragically feckless flight from
Paris in 1791 – that make it such a delightful read. It is a liberating
experience to find a general historical survey that does away with the
conventional, stultifying analytical distinctions between economic, social and
political factors. Instead, the reader can interact directly (as well as
chronologically, which makes it easy to dip in and out of) with the actors and
the events without having to navigate around tedious discussions of causal
significance or complex arguments with other historians.
One
gets to know with almost casual familiarity the important personages in the ancien régime, including those working
behind the scene; regardless of what you have been led to believe, the earliest
revolutionaries were not bourgeoisie, but nobility and high clergy, many of
them functionaries in the old regime. Intoxicated by idealism and Rousseau’s
sublime concepts of virtue, reason, equality, etc., they had set out to correct
real or perceived iniquities in France. Louis XVI’s ministers saw the dangers
lurking ahead, but seemed impotent to effectively protect the monarchy and
solve the problems afflicting France, particularly the looming, serious
financial problems and the threat of national bankruptcy. Nevertheless, these
old regime functionaries, for the first time, are seen by the author as people
of flesh and blood, although with all the frailties of ordinary men when all
too often in times of crises – unlike other books in which they are portrayed
almost anonymously as faceless aristocrats imbued not in human virtue, but only
suffused of arrogance and other vices of idle and luxuriant living.
This
book argues persuasively that the old regime was of itself undergoing changes
of modernity in trade, technology, and laissez faire capitalism influenced by
the teachings of the physiocrats, and these changes, rather than being openly
welcomed by the people because of the advent of greater economic freedom, were
actually decried and resented because these changes brought them insecurity and
incertitude. The common people wanted cheap bread and regimentation whereas the
lesser nobility wanted to hold onto the only thing left to them – their titles
of nobility and what remained of their ancient land privileges, poor as most of
them had become. It wasn't the lesser nobility or the bourgeoisie who led in
the revolution.
From
the outset of the revolution, for the most part, the liberal elite coming from
the upper crust of the high nobility and clergy pushed for progressive change
from above (operating in the voice of Mirabeau, Siéyès, Tallyrand, etc.)
leading, whereas the poor and displaced persons militated from below. The
destructive winter of 1788-1789 had forced the destitute and other disaffected
elements of society to tread in the path of the revolution. The bitter harvest
of 1787, the scarcities that followed, and the concomitant high prices for
grain, bread, and other commodities did not help the looming economic and
financial crisis. Mr. Schama certainly provides good evidence and persuasive
arguments that those men of the nobility and clergy who were making war against
their own classes set the revolution in motion - a tumbling, violent cascade
that later they were unable to control.
One
must visualize the French Revolution from its inception in 1789 to the end of
the Terror on 9 Thermidor as a speeding log moving from left to right
representing first the alleged enemies of the people, the aristocrats, the
refractory priests, then the constitutional monarchists and foreigners, then
the Feuillants, Girondins, Dantonists (and the Cordeliers), Hébertists, even
more moderate or inconvenient Jacobins, and finally the Robespierrists -
devoured by their own revolution. This log is ever being mounted by fresh radicals
on the left while it continuously moves and is turned into lumber on the right
by the circular saw of the revolution. (Only the Hébertists were out of
sequence in the political spectrum only because the dictatorship of Robespierre
outflanked them in the struggle for power.)
But
it is the skill with which Schama recounts events like the fall of the Bastille
that makes this book unique and easily the most enjoyable modern history of the
revolution in English. The embellishing vocabulary (readers are advised to have
a dictionary to hand), the recurring motifs (the revolutionary obsession with
heads, whether on pikes or as busts) and the vivid build-up of tension are the
true strengths of this so-called chronicle. It is perfect for the novice reader
and the enlightened amateur alike. Citizens
demands re-reading for the richness of its description to be fully appreciated,
especially its masterful reconstruction of the fascinating and sometimes
disturbing culture of the old regime, which is probably the most accessible
that exists. The only disappointment is that it ends with Thermidor, in 1794.
After 800 pages, one is still hoping for more, which is the highest recommendation
possible for this genre of historical writing.
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