| Abstract |
The Revolution was not the realization of a single project, embodied by a single group, but the meeting of reformers and utopian projects competing in a fragmented country with strong regional identities, religious and political. This book, seconded on an extensive bibliography as French and foreigner and leaving room for Anglo-Saxon contributions, invites a new reading of the years 1770 to 1802 in which this story has both the chaotic and the exceptional. The revolution, initiated by Louis XV and Louis XVI, fails on the masterful coup of 1789. This opens the "revolution-regeneration" expected by almost all the French people and is the last of revolutions in the Atlantic world. The real revolution began in 1792, led by men who invented new rules of life. Violence that escapes the control of the state, allows the national victory, but ruins the unity of the country. After the elimination of Robespierre, stabilization pursued by rival groups succeeds in welding the nation, but stumbles on palace revolutions until the State has entrusted a charismatic general. It is realizing that the complexity of the present work shows how France and beyond the world enter into modernity. |
