Cicero's account of the Catiline Conspiracy, especially.
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Later, in his speeches and writings, Robespierre insisted over and over again that the people were good and virtuous; that the revolution would not be finished until the poor were protected and the weak made safe. Did Robespierre support those raising more than their voices? McPhee takes Robespierre's famous or perhaps infamous question as one of his chapter headings: What that longed-for virtuous polity, inhabited by a regenerated people, would actually have been like remains a complete mystery.
Robespierre could not be drawn on agrarian policy.
He wanted to make poverty honourable, rather than attempt social levelling. He dared defend the Terror as an emanation of virtue.
Robespierre: A Revolutionary Life
The historian Colin Jones writes of McPhee's book: The revolution ruined many men, and a large number of women too. To be ruined by a revolution can hardly count as an achievement in the annals of history. To be a man or woman suspected of ruining a revolution is altogether more significant. Robespierre wrote and spoke as though he believed the destiny of the revolution ran through him.
Yet he was often ill and frequently protested that the task was beyond him. Certainly, he was exhausted by But the lasting grandeur of his life rests in the coincidence he believed existed between himself and the revolution. Others believed it too: McPhee has been a friend to Robespierre in focusing sharply on the details of his ordinary, early life: But it is still the magnified form, the enormous power, the gigantic size of his revolutionary life and reputation that fascinate.
Ruth Scurr is the author of Fatal Purity: Robespierre and the French Revolution.
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Topics Biography books The Observer. He also confronted the enduring tension faced by many republicans at this time, namely that only a virtuous citizenry could enable a true democracy to thrive, but the people, while naturally good, had been morally corrupted beyond recognition by centuries of monarchical and despotic rule. From the middle of the s, Robespierre began to receive increased attention and popularity. In chapter six, McPhee describes his steady rise in the public conscience.
He was relentless, and his untiring commitment to the principles of the Revolution had led to a new sobriquet in In October Robespierre left Paris, and returned briefly to his hometown of Arras. But after a fairly mixed reception both publically and personally, he decided to leave again, and travel the surrounding countryside to see friends, and ponder the tumultuous events of the last couple of years.
Robespierre: a Revolutionary Life | French History | Oxford Academic
It was at this time that he penned his most passionate and heartfelt reflection: Dedication to the Spirit of Jean-Jacques Rousseau. One aspect of this reverence that McPhee skims over is the notion of emulation. The concept, and practice, of emulating heroes of former times is central to the republican tradition and in much need of further investigation , and was key for many of the revolutionaries, especially Robespierre. Towards the end of the issue of war began to rear its head. In contrast, Robespierre argued for a war of defence, advocating the armed mobilisation of the National Guard to defend la patrie if its frontiers were breached.
But on this issue he cut a rather lonely figure in the Legislative Assembly, facing a torrent of personal invective over his position on both this issue, and the general direction of the Revolution. It is around this time that he began to complain about his physical health; the constant demands of his work, coupled with the strains of propelling the revolutionary project further, beginning to take their toll. After France declared war against Austria on 20 April , Robespierre focused his efforts on ensuring firstly that France would triumph, and secondly that it was done in the name of universal principles against tyrants, and not in the name of aggressive expansion against peoples.
Indeed such hostility towards territorial expansion fed into his initial hesitations over the idea of a republic. From the writings of Plutarch, Tacitus, Livy, and, of course, Rousseau, Robespierre knew that the survival of republics was fixed to their size, and were unlikely to function effectively, if at all, across large territorial regions. The first was the overthrow of the monarchy in August 10 , while second was the trial and execution of the king.
Louis Capet was eventually executed, but in accomplishing this act of revolutionary justice, the French invited a new set of dangers.
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It was also during this tumultuous period that Robespierre offered a restatement of his political philosophy by drafting a new Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. McPhee gives us a thorough overview of the various dimensions to this document, including the powerful sense of internationalism and fraternity that shaped it. By the summer of the Republic was truly en danger.
Robespierre was worn out, and as his physical strength waned the enemies of the revolution, disguised in the costumes of patriots, grew inexorably in his mind. He now catalogued the forces of the Revolution into a dangerous set of binary distinctions: Such a mind-set typified the members of the Committee of Public Safety, which Robespierre joined in July as a member without portfolio.
By Robespierre was physically and emotionally shattered, and long bouts of illness meant that he was away from the Committee and National Convention.
The Republic was struggling for its very survival, and Robespierre saw conspiracy and threat lurking in all places, including in the words and deeds of some of his closest associates, Danton and Camille Desmoulins. His death was equally painful. The answer comes in three parts. It is certainly a more complete image than we have been treated to in the past. Yet while he helped to accelerate that progress, McPhee shows us that Robespierre never stood back or above it. Writing in , the historian Marc Bloch wrote: He has posed and answered in insightful detail the most important questions: