Living the French Revolution, 1789-99

331 Pages·2006·2.21 MB·English

by  Peter McPhee, Palgrave Connect (Online service)

Living the French
Revolution, 1789-99
Peter McPhee
Living the French Revolution, 1789–99
Also by Peter McPhee
COLLIOURE ET LA RÉVOLUTION FRANÇAISE,1789–1815
(Perpignan, le Publicateur, 1989)
‘PANSY’:A Life of Roy Douglas Wright
(Melbourne, Melbourne University Press, 1999)
REVOLUTION AND ENVIRONMENT IN SOUTHERN FRANCE: Peasant, Lords, and
Murder in the Corbières, 1780–1830 (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1999)
LES SEMAILLES DE LA RÉPUBLIQUE DANS LES PYRÉNÉES-ORIENTALES, 1846–1852:
Classes Sociales, Culture et Politique (Perpignan, L’Olivier, 1995)
A SOCIAL HISTORY OF FRANCE, 1780–1880(London and New York, Routledge, 1992)
A SOCIAL HISTORY OF FRANCE, 1780–1914,Enlarged Second Edition
(London and New York, Palgrave Macmillan, 2004)
THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 1789–1799(Oxford University Press, 2002)
THE POLITICS OF RURAL LIFE: Political Mobilization in the French Countryside
1846–1852 (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1992)
UNE COMMUNAUTÉ LANGUEDOCIENNE DANS I’HISTOIRE: Gabian 1760–1960
(Nîmes, Lacour, 2001)
Living the French
Revolution, 1789–99
Peter McPhee
© Peter McPhee 2006
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First published in 2006 by
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN
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ISBN-13:978–0–333–99739–0 hardback
ISBN-10:0–333–99739–5 hardback
This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully
managed and sustained forest sources.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
McPhee,Peter,1948–
Living the French Revolution,1789–99 / Peter McPhee.
p.cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0–3 33–99739–5 (cloth)
1.France––History––Revolution,1789–1799.2.France––Politics and
government––1789–1799.I.Title.
DC148.M454 2007
944.04––dc22 2006044833
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
15 14 13 12 11 10 09 08 07 06
Printed and bound in Great Britain by
Antony Rowe Ltd,Chippenham and Eastbourne
For Tom and Kit, Anton and Suzy
Map 1 France – physical
Contents
List of Figures and Maps viii
Acknowledgements ix
List of Abbreviations x
Introduction 1
1 Describing the Old Regime 11
2 Elation and Anxiety: The Revolutionary Year 35
3 Reimagining Space and Power, 1789–91 55
4 Without Christ or King, 1791 77
5 Deadly Divisions, 1791–92 96
6 In the Fires of War, 1792–93 114
7 The Experience of Terror, 1793–94 132
8 Settling Scores: The Thermidorian Reaction, 1794–95 163
9 A New Régime and Its Discontents, 1795–99 178
Conclusion – A Revolution for the People? 201
Notes 229
Bibliography 265

Index 302
vii
List of Figures and Maps
Figures
1 Arson attacks on châteaux, July – August 1789 42
2 Arrest and interrogation of a noble, 1789 43
3 Hunting priests c. 1790 70
4 Stone carving of the Bastille c. 1790 71
5 Arrest of Louis at Varennes, 21 June 1791 88
6 The collapse of respect for the King 89
7 Revolutionary currency 106
8 Patriotic plate, 1793 107
9 Membership card for the Jacobin club of Dax (Landes) 150
10 The insignia of Mont-Égalité (Seine-et-Marne) 151
11 The new civic virtues, 1797 188
12 The patriotic farmer 189
Maps
1 France – physical vi
2 Provinces in the 1780s 17
3 Departments and their capitals 68
4 The war in the Vendée: the battle for Cholet, September 1793 158
5 Extent of illegal clearance of common land 219

viii
Acknowledgements
Illustrations
Cover – École française. Portrait de femme, dit La Maraîchère. Vers 1795.
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon. Photo Alain Basset.
1 Châteaux incendiés au moment de la Grande Peur. Juillet-Août 1789.
Gravure. Paris, musée Carnavalet. FA-13288B © Collection Roger-
Viollet.
2 Attaque de la voiture d’un aristocrate, août 1789. Gravure, B.N.
FA-12466 © Collection Roger-Viollet.
3 ‘La chasse aux corbeaux’. Gravure antireligieuse. Paris, musée
Carnavalet. FA-26084 © Collection Roger-Viollet.
4 Stone carving of the Bastille above the doorway of a house in Camps-
sur-l’Agly (Aude). Photograph by Fronza Woods-Pleasance.
5 Arrestation de Louis XVI (1754–93), roi de France, et de la famille royale
à Varennes le 21 juin 1791. Gravure, Musée Carnavalet, Paris. FA-13323
© Collection Roger-Viollet.
6 L’Entrée Franche: Je me suis ruiné pour l’engraisser, la fin du compte je
ne sait qu’en faire. PMVP/Cliché: Habouzit. Musée Carnavalet HIST PC
016 C-G 25670.
7 Assignats. 1789–99. RVB-06884 © Collection Roger-Viollet.
8 Plat: Je suis bougrement patriote. PMVP/Cliché: Svartz, Denis. Musée
Carnavalet C 0451.
9 Cocarde, carte au nom de la Société Amis de la Constitution de 1793
Commune de Dax. PMVP/ Cliché: Andreani. Musée Carnavalet

OM 0176.
10 Société populaire de Mont Égalité, ci-devant Faremoutier: Unité-
indivisibilité, fraternité ou la mort. [Meaux: s.n. 1793 ou 1794] .
Bibliothèque Nationale de France. Hennin 11831.
11 Marie Royer, vivandière de la 51e demi-Brigade. 22 ventôse an 5.
Labrousse del et sculp [Paris: sn, entre 1796 et 1805] Extrait de Grasset
Saint-Sauveur. Bibliothèque Nationale de France. QB1-1797.
12 Jaque Guillon. Bibliothèque Nationale de France. LF-9C 4o.
Parts of Chapter 1 were published as ‘“The misguided greed of peasants”?
Popular attitudes to the environment in the Revolution of 1789’, French
Historical Studies24 (2001), 247–269.
ix