the french revolution

also i just learned that marat's death-bath was filled with cooling water rather than boiling hot

Because of his painful skin condition?

In July, I read Jeremy D. Popkin's newish A New World Begins: The History of the French Revolution. Quite good on the Revolution's social advances and sans-culottes hypocrisies and heresies.

(xp) That was Marat. That's why he was in the bath when Mme. Corday came a-calling.

i knew abt the condition, i just somehow always imagined the bath was very hot and that this contributed to marat's constant fury

He thought, "You know what? This will make a great painting one day".

with good reason: jacques-louis david was right there! he's the instagram influencer of the national convention

Just realized I misread J. Redd's post, I thought he was saying Hébert had a painful skin condition. Wouldn't have surprised, they were an unhealthy lot, Robespierre was forever pulling a sickie.

apparently he had a pain in the jaw before he was guillotined, that hypochondriac

The wee fella wis up tae high doh in the weeks afore Thermidor. As Boaby might say.

the lancet has opinions

"his disease did not play any part in his death" <-- hard to argue with i suppose

Believe there is an R.E.M. song that mentions the incident. This one.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWgTv9TvZys

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0rgeQ0QD-o
🎥 Napolean XIV - They're Coming To Take Me Away, Ha-Haaa!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZXI9RJSgok

^Probably my favorite song related to this, DO U SEE?

Almost forgot this one, close second:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXa8IXvaW0I

charlotte corday stabbing the gallagher bros in *their* bath, no committee of public safety in the land wd have guillotined her

ps not to step on a joak but the "pain in the jaw" alfred mentioned was from being shot in it when arrested (possibly by RP himself possibly by an arresting officer, the wikipedia version of events in his final 48 hours is the opposite of lucid but i also think there were several rival versions of said events)

I dunno, pretty sure that Wikipedia editor was on the scene as events unfolded

His brother jumped out a window and broke his leg(s) too I think? And somebody else did succeed in blowing their brains out which Maxie might have been trying to do.

executed alongside hébert: craz name crazy wig!

prussian-dutch rather than french, anarchist and internationalist, he shd still probably be in the OP list (esp.as these are basically the reasons he was guillotined)

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/bc/Anacharsis_Cloots_-_Ecrits_révolutionnaires.jpg/800px-Anacharsis_Cloots_-_Ecrits_révolutionnaires.jpg

anyway i finished a place of greater safety, no spoilers but only a handful of the characters make it through with their heads on etc lol

based on previous mantel experience i will need to reread to get some of what's going on: also it was published in 90s but actually written in the 70s and is i think very different in how it manages material to wolf hall et al

The French Revolution was an obsession of mine a couple of years back so don't get me started on those Thermidorian so-and-so's.

les wojacques:

the best thing ive ever participated in the creation of (i selected almost all of the people and positions, tost did the actual work of photoshopping them into this) pic.twitter.com/SkYSY3tEKC

— Femboy Political Theology (@OldDreyfusard) March 18, 2022

v useful chart.

Is it? It’s of interest to me cause I’ve been reading about the revolution. But that version of the political compass just seems like a vehicle to promote libertarianism. Surely there’s some less arbitrary axis than ‘libertarian vs authoritarian’.

Just one example, the Girondins are separated from Robespierre here but weren’t they actually pretty close? Maybe that axis really just refers to the degree of fondness for the guillotine?

I don't know what the Girondins have to do with libertarianism, or why Dantonists are further left than Robespierre or why Robespierre isn't further left than the Girondins, for that matter. Or what is authoritarian about Babeuf etc.

basically i just like the faces

OTM

https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2022/11/olympic-paralympic-mascot-hero-1704x959.jpg

https://www.dezeen.com/2022/11/17/paris-french-revolution-hats-olympic-paralympic-mascots/

https://pyxis.nymag.com/v1/imgs/188/b26/44452f4a73fd2a6cb18f27c644c5c7a1f0-9-smurfs-1.2x.rhorizontal.w700.jpg

Reckless and Unrepentant Smurfs Continue Their Defiance

it seems like this is the thread we come to when we’re rabbitholing the revolution due to mantel’s place of greater safety

hi it’s me

this reread has convinced me i finally need to do actual history reading to get a better grasp on all the players & surrounding events etc

thinking of
- Christopher Hibbert “french revolution”
- RR Palmer “twelve who ruled”

any other recommendations?
i don’t think Schama is for me - too populist? idk. i liked his art history years ago but this seems out of his lane.

but i do need a ~good~ overview, and at least one good specific robespierre bc he intrigues me

how are we doing on this fine Ventose day

I liked Jeremy D. Popkin's 2021 A New World Begins: The History of the French Revolution

i tried schama but i didn't vibe with him at _all_, he seemed to be coming from a very different place than i was and nothing he was saying seemed to make much sense to me.

from cursory research seems like a few of revolution historians disagree w him too

xxpost that looks like exactly what i’m after, thx Alfred!

schama shd turn his mind to the reckless and unrepentent smurfs imo

is Ruth Scurr's Fatal Purity any good? I bought the paperback but the print was too small and a struggle for my bad eyesight. I managed to acquire the e-book but seem to recall someone on here being unimpressed with it.

i enjoyed mike duncan's revolutions podcast on this particular revolution: he was good at clarifying who was thinking what and how this or that group's political stance could be genuinely radical one month and then cofusedly reactionary the next without having changed much in-between

I think "Twelve Who Ruled" was the first thing I read on the French Revolution - I've never read the Hilary Mantel novel - anyway it rules. "Robespierre: A Revolutionary Life" by Peter McPhee is also very good. Both are fairly favourable towards Robespierre. I wouldn't go anywhere near Simon Schama on this particular subject.

is Ruth Scurr's Fatal Purity any good? I bought the paperback but the print was too small and a struggle for my bad eyesight. I managed to acquire the e-book but seem to recall someone on here being unimpressed with it.

― calzino, Saturday

I mentioned it upthread. Solid as research but his identification with Robespierre gave me the creeps.

omg i forgot abt mike duncan’s revolutions podcast! i love him. maybe i’ll give that a go

i was listening to a different podcast abt the revolution but he keeps likening things to star wars & lord of the rings & game of thrones & it makes me deeply eyerolly

the haiti season of revolutions is short and dovetails nicely with the French Revolution one

update: i finished Popkin’s “A New World Begins” - it was exactly the kind of overview i needed
and really well-written. he has a lovely light touch that i appreciated

thx for the recommendation Alfred!

now i am digging into RR Palmer’s “Twelve Who Ruled” and i am loving it

it’s surprising that his conversational-style narrative was written in the 1940’s. Quite a fresh take for the times!

Forgot about TWELVE WHO RULED.

omg it’s so freaking good!!
i’m halfway through