Hi,

Thank you for this AMA. I'm French and I don't even know the answer of this question.

How was the Revolution percieved in the country side ?

In our schools, we are taught that it was a national thing, yet we don't have much clues that can lead us to such a conclusion. Nearly every events that we know took place in Paris.

I know that after the Revolution, many french people engaged themselves in the army against the other european forces from all over the country. But what about the early stage of the Revolution ? When the Bastille fell for example ?

Thank you :)

After the American revolution, there was a considerable amount of talk about how to raise and educate virtuous, republican citizens - whether through the nurturing of "republican mothers" or through a system of schools - so that the republic would have an informed, rational, and moral citizenry. I've always wondered: was there any analog to this during the French Revolution? Were there revolutionary schools? How about an idealized concept of the "revolutionary mother?"

C’est une révolte?

This list kind of grew in the asking. maybe I'll start by asking if there is a good single volume history of the pre-Napoleonic Revolution?

• What do you think of Marx's characterization of the Revolution as a "bourgeois revolution"?

• I have sometimes heard that the revolution wasn't really any more brutal than the proceeding period, only the victims were aristocrats rather than peasants. What are your thoughts?

• In regards to the Vendee Revolution, how do you regard that? "French" is somewhat famously Parisian-centric, was the Vendee revolt and indication that the "French" revolution was really a "Parisian" revolution?

• Kind of related to that, how did regional identities (eg, Occitan, Breton, etc) interact with the Revolution?

• Knowing only bits and pieces of the narrative of the Revolution, I frequently run into figures like Danton and Robespierre who seem to be top dogs one month and headless the next. In particular, how exactly did Robespierre go from managing Terror committees and executing Danton in May to having his head chopped off in July?

• I think this is for /u/corree, but I often hear that conservative leaning depictions of the revolution were highly "aesthetic" (focusing on the beauty of the palaces or the princess' maiden-like appearance) while republican depictions were rational in their focus. Does this hold any water?

• Speaking of La Marseillaise, why Marseille? What was going on down there? Was it special at all or just did someone there just happen to write a ct

In Forbidden Bestsellers of Prerevolutionary France Darnton argues that pornographic and libertine representations of the aristocracy, and especially Marie Antoinette was a major pusher and instigator of anti-monarchical and anti-aristocratic fervor. How well is this borne out in your studies of france?

For what it's worth, Darnton has recently come under fire by book historians for his overeliance on one archive and failure to contextualize the texts and how they were understood.

Were there any early French revolutionaries who argued for exporting the revolution to other European monarchies, either through war or supporting rebels?

I know bits and pieces about the French Revolution, enough to piece together a rough outline of what happened up to the Bastille but little afterwards other than lots of people lost their heads. My primitive understanding is that the people revolted because of their aloof attitude of their monarch. Does this stem from the "Divine Right of Kings" philosophy?

Also, did feelings in Great Britain change as the revolution changed, as the Divine Right attitude seemed to die out with Charles I?

Roughly speaking, how did the loyalties of the army break down when the Revolution swept through? I would assume officers were more prone to monarchist allegiances, and the rank-and-file to the Revolutionary elements, but I'd be more interested in hearing the motivations of those who were the opposite.

How much do we know about Aristocrats fleeing the mainland for safety in the colonies? Where would they tend to go if this was a documented choice of action and would they eventually be 'caught' once France would be consolidated after the Revolution?

Feels so dirty asking a question within my timeline :P

Hello, and thanks for doing this AMA.

My research focuses on the 1790s, and I've stumbled across a number of references tying a revolution in Poland with the French Revolution during the early 1790s. I know nothing about Polish history, other than what I've found to try to contextualize these references.

My question is: what do we know about the relationship between the two revolutions? If there's any recommended reading you'd recommend for this subject I'd absolutely appreciate it.

How well 'read' were the masses who supported the Revolution? Did they actually talk/study/know much of the philosophy/ies behind it or were the vast majority simply following charismatic leaders and/or the Zeitgeist?

Would exiled aristocrats who fought against the Revolution expect to be executed if they were captured in battle? Did any of the nobles who actively fought against the Revolution rejoin the French army proper under Napoleon and, if so, was there any hesitation to let them back in?

Is there anything specifically from Carlyle's The French Revolution: A History that is now generally regarded to be false? I understand that much was romanticized and/or exaggerated (and if you can think of any specific examples of exaggeration to note, that would be great as well), but is there anything that is believed to be outright false?

Thanks

Good afternoon. Thank you for the AMA.

Was there a point during revolution that marked a divergance from the American revolution? In other words, did any revolutionaries or citizens realize the revolution was not developing as intended?

How did france maintain to be such a big entity on the European stage. They made enemies throughout Europe, yet they still maintained a certain level of domminance over Europe espacially at the turn of the centuary. I always found it odd because there were so many conspiraccies and changes from power. Especially later in the 19th centuary. But in those first few years before Napoleon. How did they seemingly escape from plumbing into complete chaos?

The Marquis De Lafayette is a something of a hero in the American Revolution. I was leafing through some stuff on the French Revolution that was decidedly negative on the man. Is there a clear contrast in his behavior between the major events or was his actions consistent but the expectations of his peers and later historians different?

More generally, how did veterans of the American Revolution who took part in the French Revolution fare?

This question concerns a slightly different time period, but ultimately it's still about a consequence of the Revolution, so:

What was the reaction in Europe to the news of Napoleon returning at the beginning of the Hundred Days? I know most of France rushed to declare for him again, except the old nobles and returned Bourbon loyalists, who fled once again. What about in Britain, Austria, Spain? Was it fear? Resignation? Anger? Some sort of "Who does he think he is, we can take him" jingoism?

Did the French Foreign Legion have any involvement during the revolution? I'm curious as how a fighting force composed of many non-French citizens would have acted during a foreign revolution.

Holy hell, there are a lot of very impressive answers here. Well done tag teaming this thing, this is one of the best AMA's we've had. Okay, so I have two small questions from the literature.

One, do people still read Charles Tilly's The Vendée and, if so, do people accept his argument that the reason the Vendée revolted and neighboring regions didn't was social structure, namely that in the Vendée the nobles were particularly petty and so they lived close to, and had more social contact with, "their" peasants?

Second, going off my memory of reading Sewell's "Inventing Revolution at the Bastille", he makes two substantive arguments in addition to the methodological ones. 1) that actually storming the Bastille was not the decisive moment, but rather getting all the guns out of the armory earlier in the day was. And 2) that the Frenchmen only realized they had a "revolution", rather than a revolt, in on July 16th when the press began to be really involved, and indeed they created a whole new meaning of the "revolution" during the days after (our modern definition, basically, which is different from older things like the Glorious Revolution). If I'm remembering right, are those two points the historical consensus?

My knowledge of the French Revolution is mostly centered around the political problems the infant American nation had with the lack of a cohesive French government. I actually wrote my senior thesis last fall positing that the Treaty of 1778 was largely responsible for these political difficulties. I digress.

My question concerns the famous "XYZ Affair" of John Adams.

I never quite understood why the intermediaries "W, X, Y, and Z" thought that asking for the bribes and huge loan were a good idea before allowing the American representatives to meet with Talleyrand. The United States was already unhappy with France, what did they hope to gain by angering the Americans further before agreeing to talk about the issues at hand?

How did the French people view the Cult of the Supreme Being and the Cult of Reason? Did those religions actually have large numbers of followers who genuinely believed in them, or did most people continue following Catholicism after it they were made official?

In case any of you have raid Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities, what did and didn't you like about its depiction of the French revolution? I did ask this question once before on this subreddit, but a whole panel about Bastille day seems like too good an opportunity to miss if there are fresh answers to be found.

A question for /u/Talleyrand

I've noticed that Québecois politicians like to invoke the memory of the French revolution despite Québec having been formally ceded to the British under the 1763 treaty of Paris (e.g. the legislature in Québec city is called the National assembly).

So my question is: How did the French Revolution affect the French population of territories France had lost during the Seven Year's War (e.g. New France, French West Africa, some of the French Caribbean Islands and French India)?

How did land property changed during the revolution? How the land of nobles were distributed?

I hope I am not too late.

I read in Polanyi's Great Transformation that there was a Marseillaise industrielle. I've been trying to hunt that version down but have turned up empty handed. Did such a thing really exist?

How was the Jay Treaty between Great Britain and the U.S. seen by your average person in France, if it mattered at all?

Thanks for hosting this panel? How widespread was the adoption of the new calendar and time system? Was it mostly confined to Paris? In addition, what were the major factors behind the conversion back to the Gregorian calendar in later years?