Thinking about the French Revolution -- A New Discussion on French Thinkers

Author: Fran?ois Furet
Translator: Meng Ming
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-01-01
Features: Furet's Penser la Révolution fran?aise, published in 1978, is a groundbreaking work in the study of the French Revolution. Strictly speaking, the book consists of four essays, divided into two parts. The first part serves as an introductory overview with a general nature, outlining a method of conceptual history, with its central idea being the introduction of critical theory into the history of the French Revolution. The second part offers an interpretation of two historical documents (Tocqueville and Guizot). Furet argues for the need to end the worship of the illusory aspects of the French Revolution in historical memory: the French Revolution is over, it should be dated and archived. This argument triggered a seismic chain reaction in the historical field. The book reevaluates two centuries of scholarly interpretations of the French Revolution, powerfully demonstrating the subtle relationship between changing times and the assessment of the French Revolution, pushing French historiography toward empirical research on the French Revolution and discarding the all-encompassing either-or attitudes toward it from an ideological perspective. Since 1800, France and Europe have produced an immense body of thought and commentary on the French Revolution. While historians of each era have undoubtedly made their own contributions to the study of the French Revolution, their work has also been deeply marked by the politics of their time. This book meticulously traces the threads of French revolutionary historiography, serving as a work that sets the record straight in the field.