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In Defence of the Terror

Liberty or Death in the French Revolution

Format: Paperback
£12.99

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For two hundred years after the French Revolution, the Republican tradition celebrated the execution of princes and aristocrats, defending the Terror that the Revolution inflicted upon on its enemies. But recent decades have brought a marked change in sensibility. The Revolution is no longer judged in terms of historical necessity but rather by "timeless" standards of morality. In this succinct essay, Sophie Wahnich explains how, contrary to prevailing interpretations, the institution of Terror sought to put a brake on legitimate popular violence-in Danton's words, to "be terrible so as to spare the people the need to be so"-and was subsequently subsumed in a logic of war. The Terror was "a process welded to a regime of popular sovereignty, the only alternatives being to defeat tyranny or die for liberty."
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Authors:
Wahnich, Sophie
Year Published:
2016
Country of Publication:
United Kingdom
Format:
Paperback
ISBN:
9781784782023
Number of Pages:
140
Publication Date:
22/12/2015
Publisher:
Verso Books
Publication Date:
05/01/2016
Imprint:
Verso Books
Place of Publication:
London
Language:
English
SKU:
9781784782023

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