European University Institute Library

Massacre at the Champ de Mars, popular dissent and political culture in the French Revolution, David Andress

eng

index present

non fiction

Massacre at the Champ de Mars

electronic resource

dictionaries

52238466

David Andress

Cambridge Social Sciences eBooks

popular dissent and political culture in the French Revolution

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 their political 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 senior lecturer in Modern European History, University of Portsmouth.--, Provided by publisher

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