Catch Twelve Who Ruled: The Year Of Terror In The French Revolution: The Year Of Terror In The French Revolution. Foreword By Isser Woloch (Princeton Classics) Fabricated By R. R. Palmer Presented As File

books about the French Revolution have had better legs in the academy than R, R. Palmers classic, “Twelve Who Ruled: The Year of Terror in the French Revolution, ” First published in, it is still often found on college syllabi across the country today, In its fifth summer,or Year II according to the new calendar, the French Revolution

was in crisis, Foreign armies threatened it from every direction, Civil insurrection raged across the countryside, Starvation and inflation gripped the major cities, Foreign plots and domestic conspiracies were imagined to be everywhere, Meanwhile, the revolutionary government in Paris was paralyzed by political infighting, The fate of the Revolution hung in the balance, Such is the backdrop for Palmers narrative history of the Committee of Public Safety CPS, The one problem that underlay all others was the need for a government sufficiently unified, powerful and legitimate to master the crisis, “Twelve Who Ruled” addresses several fundamental questions, What was the Committee of Public Safety What was it trying to achieve Was it successful Why did it fall Palmer tackles these core issues in a lively, narrative format while presenting nice little biographical vignettes of all twelve members of the committee.
Created on April,, the CPS was tasked to “watch over and speed up government actions, ” As a unit, the twelve members of the CPS had much in common, They were, for the most part, financially well off before the Revolution, middle class intellectuals from the provincesof thewere lawyers, while justhad any military experience whatsoever who had shown no radical tendencies before.
Just three had been elected to the Estates General, but all were elected deputies to the National Convention in, All but one was underyears of age, Robespierre didnt join the committee until theth of July it was his first official role after four years of non stop Revolutionary activity in Paris.
“The month of September was the turning point in the transition from anarchy to dictatorship,” according to the author, The original powers of the CPS were somewhat circumscribed, That would quickly change. On Septemberth terror was declared “the order of the day, ” The war in Europe viewed as a life and death struggle of liberty against tyranny, On Septemberth the Law of Suspects was passed, casting a wide net to detain anyone with even a hint of counter revolutionary sympathies, real or even simply perceived.
And then, on Septemberth, the General Maximum law was passed fixing prices oncommodities, Those caught not abiding by the price and wage laws were instantly guilty of being “Suspects, ” For the first time inyears France had something like an effective central government, On DecemberthFrimaire the convention passed a law granting unlimited power to the CPS, The Terror led to the first totalitarian state as the CPS attempted to nationalize the entire life of the country, However, “socialism was far from the intention of the CPS,” according to Palmer, Rather, “the economic regulations grew up piecemeal, imposed by circumstances, with no foundation in theory except a genuine sense of the sovereignty of the nation, ” Not only was France at war and under blockade, but also private enterprise had all but collapsed, as many bourgeois were resistant to the Jacobin government.
The CPS essentially sought economic self sufficiency, an autarky that Palmer calls nothing but “a gloss on the brute fact of isolation, ” The CPS had only two options to requisition the needed supplies for the war and domestic consumption, both of them fraught with peril, They could either print assignats which would lead to run away inflation or seek to control prices and wages, The chose the latter, but with limited success, So, what was the purpose of the Terror The situation had been complicated by the return of Danton to Paris in late, His call for moderation was supported in the Convention, His Citra or Indulgent followers there were opposed by the Ultras of the Paris Commune and the Cordelier Club, the Herbertists who pushed for of the guillotine.
In the middle was Robespierre a man who Palmer repeatedly insists had the utmost respect for constitutional government and the freedom of religion so long as it didnt influence political allegiances.
On January,, Robespierre issued a circular letter to all the Jacobin Clubs of France urging unity of purpose and avoiding “the pitfalls of overzealousness, ” And then, on Februaryth, in a speech to the National Convention that Palmer hails as “one of the most noble utterances in the history of democracy,” Robespierre sought “to mark clearly the aim of the Revolution,” the true principles of the governments actions.
In short, he wanted to replace a country of egotism, etiquette, custom, insolence, vanity, greed, conceit, intrigue and the triviality of grand society with a nation built upon morality, probity, reason, large mindedness, merit, talent, and the love of glory and pride in ones country.
In other words, to trade “all the virtues and miracles of the republic for all the vices and puerilities of the monarchy, ” It was a vision aligned with Robespierres reading of Ciceros “The Catiline Conspiracy” and Plutarchs “Life of Lycurgus, ”As utopian as all of this sounded and was Palmer insists that Robespierre was a true child of the Enlightenment and believed that virtue is natural in people.
Thus, any deviation from such virtuous behavior by society could only be ascribed to malevolence or foreign intrigue, The author concludes, “The fact that Robespierres aim was impossible does not mean that his diagnosis was incorrect, ” Indeed, Palmer believes that Robespierre, “with all of his faults, which were many, was one of the half dozen major prophets of democracy, ”Palmer writes that the events of Ventose, specifically those ofVentose Marchth, were perhaps even important than those of Thermidor for what they signaled for the future.
For the first time, it was stated and enforced that whoever opposed the present ruling order was in a state of insurrection and ipso facto a counter revolutionary.
In the words of Saint Just, a man Palmer claims “would be most at home in a twentieth century revolution”: “Every party is then criminal because it is a form of isolation from the peoplea form of independence from the government.
” Dissent was now officially treason, According to Palmer, “The Revolution was now in the government, not the populace, ” And the CPS now “a full grown dictatorship, ”Armed with the new powers bequeathed by Ventose, Robespierre was quick to strike, The first to go were the radical Herbertists, the faction of the Paris Commune and rowdy sans culottes, The Paris streets, which had guided revolutionary events since, were silent, “For the first time inyears,” the author stresses, “central authority asserted itself, ” Danton and his Indulgents were purged on April,Palmer claims that Robespierre moved against the Herbertists first only because they had tried to launch a failed street revolt in March and had to be dealt with immediately.
The fall of the Herbertists left the sans culottes and the Paris militants confused and bewildered, the fall of the Dantonists left the deputies of the National Convention frightened.
Robespierre had overplayed his hand, The Revolution in Marchwas in no threat of extinction, as it had been in Julyby Royalists or Augustby foreign powers or Mayby the forces of anarchy and civil insurrection.
Just when reconciliation seemed like the most natural order of the day, the CPS pursued hardline policies, The Cordelier Club was closed and the Revolutionary Army disbanded, The theater was strictly controlled, New, uniformed forms of dress and language were devised, Indeed, the Revolution was being transmogrified into some sort of cult, which reached its apogee on June,at the Celebration of the Supreme Being, There were distinct puritanical undertones to the new regime, where frugality, discipline and chastity were virtues exalted above all others, Palmer says that Robespierres public prominence in these events and as the face of the CPS likely hastened his downfall as a would be dictator, After justdays of uncontested power, Robespierre was overthrown on Julyth orThermidor, The events leading to the downfall were, according to Palmer, “triviala series of personal intrigues culminating in coup détat, ” From the perspective of the Thermidoreans, the story was simple: Robespierre, with the aid of Georges Couthon and Saint Just, attempted to make himself dictator, even a quasi religious figure.
The parallels to Julius Caesar are uncanny, although Palmer makes no note of it, On the other hand, a radical interpretation of events holds that Robespierre, frustrated that the purges of Ventose had not fully succeeded in rooting out corruption and selfishness, continued to fight hard to bring about his ideal republic of virtue and was opposed by the mendacious and venal deputies of the National Convention.
Indeed, Palmer notes, “Those who think that Robespierres ideas were capable of realization regard Thermidor as an in calculable tragedy, ”In the end, Palmer takes a balanced view of the CPS, viewing it simultaneously as necessary, flawed, creative, successful and disastrous, Robespierre emerges as of a flinty and naive idealist than a tyrannical monster, while the true and lasting legacy of the CPS was that of effective central government than political extremism, purges and executions by guillotine.
If you are looking to read just one book on the Reign of Terror or only a handful on the entire French Revolution, “Twelve Who Ruled” should be it, even after all of these years.
R. R. Palmer is considered somewhat of an authority in the English speaking world concerning the French Revolution, This is a great book, well written, and is a great analysis of the thought processes and events which caused them, Puts a very human face on 'The Great Terror' and those responsible for it, This isn't an apologist defence of Robespierre, but it does look at sharing the guilt of such widespread repression and violence amongst other, essentially radical members of the Committee for Public Safety, rather than making Robespierre the scapegoat which he has for so long been labelled.
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