The English Republican Tradition and Eighteenth-Century France

What is it about?

The French have a reputation for being the revolutionary nation. Their 'great' Revolution of 1789 is often seen as a model for all later revolutionary moments and they themselves experienced further revolutionary upheaval during the nineteenth century (1830, 1848, 1871) not to mention the central role the French played in the student movements of 1968. Yet, as this book demonstrates, despite their claims to be starting afresh, the French revolutionaries of the 1790s were very conscious of earlier models that might act as a guide in their own time of revolution, and, of particular interest and importance to them were the events of mid-seventeenth century England. Not only were the French revolutionaries the first to describe those events as a revolution, but they also compared the execution of Charles I with that of Louis XVI and translated English political tracts from the period that they felt might shine light on their own experiences. The English Republican Tradition and Eighteenth-Century France explores this neglected aspect of European history by looking at how English republican ideas of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries were interpreted and used by French thinkers, writers and political activists throughout the eighteenth century.

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