Some citizens were more equal than others. Introduction Throughout the 18th century, France faced a mounting economic crisis. A rapidly growing population had outpaced the food supply. A severe winter in 1788 resulted in famine and widespread starvation in the countryside. Rising prices in Paris brought bread riots. By 1789 France was broke. The nobility[…]
Portrait of Edgar Quinet by Sebastien-Melchior Cornu / National Portrait Gallery Examining the connections Quinet made between the Protestant Reformation and the French Revolution. By Dr. Bryan Banks Assistant Professor of Early Modern and Modern European History, Comparative Revolutions, and Religious Studies Columbus State University Historians have explained the origins of the French Revolution in[…]
Liberty leads the people / Wikimedia Commons Exploring the artistic expressions of the French Revolution. Edited by Matthew A. McIntosh / 09.23.2018 Historian Brewminate Editor-in-Chief Réunion des Trois Ordres (Reunion of the Three Estates), 1789 Etching with hand-colouring / Publisher Unrecorded This print is in fact a combination of three etchings produced separately during the[…]
The start of the 19th century was a time of hostility between France and England, marked by a series of wars. Throughout this period, England feared a French invasion led by Napoleon. Ruth Mather explores the impact of this fear on literature and on everyday life. By Dr. Ruth Mather Postdoctoral Research Associate University of Exeter[…]
Scenes of July 1830, a painting by Léon Cogniet alluding to the July revolution of 1830 / Wikimedia Commons Similar to the earlier revolution in 1789 and the subsequent one in 1848, the revolutionary upheaval in Paris in July 1830 served as a signal for further revolutionary movements in other countries. By Dr. Julia A. Schmidt-Funke / 08.16.2017[…]
Detail from La Liberté Triomphante (1792), showing Liberty brandishing a thunderbolt in one hand and a Phrygian cap on a stick in the other / National Library of France Kevin Duong explores how leading French revolutionaries, in need of an image to represent the all important “will of the people”, turned to the thunderbolt — a natural[…]