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Communication Dans Un Congrès Année : 2019

"How French was the French Revolution? The reception of English republicanism in eighteenth-century France"

Myriam-Isabelle Ducrocq
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Résumé

From the outbreak of the French Revolution, some witnesses and actors focused on the singular and unpredictable character of the event. This approach was taken by historians of the Revolution from the 19th onward, with a strong emphasis on the notion of a French exception . Michael K. Baker described this tendency as ‘the Tocqueville syndrome’ . The narrowing down of this historical perspective also corresponded to a narrowing of the geographical scope, with the idea that the republic, and a republic promoting not only liberty, but ideas of social justice (equality), was unheard of in the modern era. In this paper I would like to make the contrary argument that a great many actors of the Revolution in France experienced the events while bearing in mind the memory of foreign revolutions, particularly that of the first English Revolution. Taking stock of Reinhart Koselleck’s analysis of historical time I would like to show that not only was the French Revolution, like any other historical event, pervaded by the memory of such events, but it was informed by ideas and concepts which came from abroad and which were adapted to the French context.
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Dates et versions

hal-04409037 , version 1 (22-01-2024)

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  • HAL Id : hal-04409037 , version 1

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Myriam-Isabelle Ducrocq. "How French was the French Revolution? The reception of English republicanism in eighteenth-century France". 15th International Congress on the Enlightenment, International Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies, Jan 2019, Edimbourg (Ecosse), France. ⟨hal-04409037⟩
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