tag:theconversation.com,2011:/nz/topics/french-revolution-8454/articles
French Revolution – The Conversation
2024-01-11T21:05:09Z
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/219762
2024-01-11T21:05:09Z
2024-01-11T21:05:09Z
Napoleon the lawmaker: What Ridley Scott’s film leaves out
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/568089/original/file-20240105-27-wtm75j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=177%2C262%2C3633%2C2662&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Joaquin Phoenix in Ridley Scott’s ‘Napoleon.’ Napoleon was a prolific legislator who sponsored the Civil Code, later known as the Napoleonic Code.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Apple TV+)</span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/napoleon-the-lawmaker-what-ridley-scotts-film-leaves-out" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>Ridley Scott’s biopic <em>Napoleon</em> veers from battlefield to boudoir, portraying Bonaparte <a href="https://www.wsj.com/arts-culture/film/napoleon-review-ridley-scott-joaquin-phoenix-france-bonaparte-vanessa-kirby-c9547205">as a caricature</a> of masculine excess. </p>
<p>Such <a href="https://deadline.com/2023/12/napoleon-global-box-office-milestone-ridley-scott-sony-apple-1235682382">sensationalism might sell</a>, but critics maintain it comes at the cost of <a href="https://www.kcl.ac.uk/disjointed-rushed-inaccurate-historian-reviews-ridley-scotts-napoleon">narrative coherence</a> and <a href="https://variety.com/2023/film/news/napoleon-inaccuracies-french-historians-pyramids-1235823975">historical accuracy</a>.</p>
<p>As a historian who <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9780367808471-31/fugitives-france-kelly-summers?context=ubx&refId=f0b06c28-a29a-49b5-a5ba-d37bee069054">specializes</a> in the <a href="https://ageofrevolutions.com/2021/01/25/a-cross-channel-marriage-in-limbo-alexandre-darblay-frances-burney-and-the-risks-of-revolutionary-migration/">French Revolution</a>, my main reservation about the film is not what it makes up, but what it leaves out. </p>
<p>Scott’s focus on Napoleon’s tactical triumphs, reckless miscalculations and sexual entanglements neglects his most paradoxical legacy: as a visionary, albeit self-serving, lawmaker. </p>
<p>A product of the Revolution’s decade-long experiment with “<a href="https://www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/en/coming-to-france/france-facts/symbols-of-the-republic/article/liberty-equality-fraternity#:%7E:text=A%20legacy%20of%20the%20Age,of%20the%20French%20national%20heritage.">liberty, equality and fraternity</a>,” Napoleon enacted egalitarian reforms that eroded the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/ancien-regime">social</a>, <a href="https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/napoleon-bonaparte">religious</a> and feudal hierarchies that pervaded Europe at the turn of the 19th century. </p>
<p>Yet at home and across France’s <a href="https://contentdm.lib.byu.edu/digital/collection/Civilization/id/591/">continental empire</a> and overseas colonies, he proved willing to sacrifice core revolutionary principles whenever they conflicted with his insatiable ambitions. </p>
<h2>Completing the French Revolution in law</h2>
<p>To its credit, the film’s moments of unexpected levity challenge both the hagiographic and anti-Bonapartist strands of Napoleonic mythology. In Joaquin Phoenix’s guttural rendering, “<a href="https://doi.org/10.4000/chrhc.5133">Little Boney</a>” comes off less Corsican ogre than oaf. </p>
<p>But this portrait of a socially awkward warrior neglects Napoleon’s greatest accomplishments and failures as a prolific legislator.</p>
<p>Just as impactful as the dramatic <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-napoleonic-wars-9780199951062?cc=ca&lang=en&">military</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-27435-1_11">political</a> feats that fuelled Bonaparte’s meteoric rise were the sweeping civil reforms he undertook after seizing power in 1799. </p>
<p>The young soldier-turned-statesman made an indelible mark as the energetic sponsor of new institutions and procedures. </p>
<p>These included a <a href="https://www.napoleon-series.org/research/society/c_education.html">secular education system</a> to staff his growing bureaucracy, ambitious <a href="https://www.napoleon.org/en/history-of-the-two-empires/articles/bullet-point-30-did-napoleon-transform-paris/">public-works</a> projects, and above all, a uniform system of laws.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">A trailer for Ridley Scott’s film ‘Napoleon.’</span></figcaption>
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<h2>Converting feudal assets into property</h2>
<p>Back in the euphoric summer of 1789, deputies pledged to abolish the medieval land management system known as feudalism. They quickly swept away the mandatory fees, labour obligations and tithes that had, for centuries, bound peasants to their lords and priests. </p>
<p>But as historian Rafe Blaufarb has shown, successive governments would struggle with a thornier problem: <a href="https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230236738_8">converting feudal assets into modern property</a>. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Napoleonic-Code">1804 Civil Code</a> (soon dubbed the Napoleonic Code) aided the process by instituting a transparent system of <a href="https://www.crf-usa.org/bill-of-rights-in-action/bria-15-2-a-the-code-napoleon">property</a> and family law. </p>
<p>Napoleon did not stop there, however. His tireless <a href="https://archive.org/details/napoleonhiscolla0000wolo">collaborators</a> churned out complementary commercial, criminal, rural and <a href="https://www.napoleon-series.org/military-info/organization/France/Miscellaneous/c_FrenchMilitaryCode.html">military</a> codes. Together, they supplanted the Old Regime’s morass of feudal privileges and royal ordinances, as well as Roman, customary <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/canon-law">and canonical laws</a>.</p>
<h2>New law had didactic purpose</h2>
<p>Napoleon cast the Civil Code as an Enlightenment project par excellence: both a practical necessity and a tool to solidify revolutionary reforms. </p>
<p>Its straightforward prose and rational organization also served a didactic purpose, informing each citizen of the “<a href="https://www.napoleon-series.org/research/government/code/c_code2.html">principles of his conduct</a>” and reconciling France’s fractured populace as equal citizens before the law. </p>
<p>As his Empire grew, Napoleon’s zeal for standardisation anticipated many of the <a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/enlightened-elitist-undemocratic/">political and economic aims</a> of the <a href="https://www.cairn.info/revue-napoleonica-la-revue-2021-1-page-35.htm">European Union</a>. He envisioned a continent bound by a “<a href="https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k109845d/f279.image.r=216">supreme court, a single currency, the same [metric] weights and measures,” and, most importantly, “the same laws</a>.”</p>
<h2>Entrenched, exported, betrayed Napoleonic law</h2>
<p>If Napoleon exported an egalitarian legal framework across Europe, however, it was often imposed at gunpoint. </p>
<p>The man who transformed France’s hard-won First Republic into an imperial “<a href="https://www.upress.virginia.edu/title/3424/">security state</a>” did not deliver “Enlightenment on horseback,” whatever his <a href="https://www.napoleon.org/en/history-of-the-two-empires/articles/napoleon-hegelian-hero/">admirers</a> <a href="https://www.andrew-roberts.net/books/napoleon-a-life/">contend</a>. </p>
<p>While championing <a href="https://revolution.chnm.org/exhibits/show/liberty--equality--fraternity/item/277">freedom of conscience</a>, national sovereignty and representative government, Napoleon imprisoned a pope, rigged <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/plebiscite">plebiscites</a>, re-established hereditary monarchy and enlarged his empire through endless wars.</p>
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<img alt="A man wearing a bicorne hat and a single-breasted blue coat with gold detailing in front of a desert landscape" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/568736/original/file-20240110-15-9uvact.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/568736/original/file-20240110-15-9uvact.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=376&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568736/original/file-20240110-15-9uvact.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=376&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568736/original/file-20240110-15-9uvact.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=376&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568736/original/file-20240110-15-9uvact.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=472&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568736/original/file-20240110-15-9uvact.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=472&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568736/original/file-20240110-15-9uvact.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=472&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Joaquin Phoenix in Ridley Scott’s ‘Napoleon.’ Napoleon and his collaborators replaced the Old Regime with new commercial, criminal, rural and military codes.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Apple TV+)</span></span>
</figcaption>
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<p>Whatever its merits, the Civil Code reversed the revolutionary gains of workers and women — especially adulterous wives, who risked “<a href="https://archive.org/details/frenchrevolution00phil/page/156/mode/2up?q=civil+code">confinement in a house of correction</a>.” A cheating husband, on the other hand, was merely barred from receiving his “concubine” in the marital home. </p>
<p>The code’s free-speech provisions were compromised by its namesake’s paradoxical belief that, “<a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/enlightened-elitist-undemocratic/">controlled by the government, a free press may become a strong ally</a>.” Napoleon’s agents increasingly turned to preventive detention, <a href="https://revolution.chnm.org/d/530">exile</a> and censorship to suppress dissent. </p>
<p>In Scott’s rendering, major figures associated with these policies flit across the screen without uttering a word. These include Joseph Fouché, Napoleon’s wily Minister of Police who oversaw his vast surveillance operations, and Jean-Jacques-Régis de Cambacérès, the “<a href="https://archive.org/details/napoleonhiscolla0000wolo/mode/2up">second most important man in Napoleonic France</a>,” whose portfolio included drafting the Civil Code.</p>
<h2>Attempted to restore slavery</h2>
<p>As noted by <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-napoleon-that-ridley-scott-and-hollywood-wont-let-you-see-218878">historian Marlene Daut</a>, the film is also silent on Napoleon’s most egregious violation of revolutionary values: his attempt to restore “order,” and with it slavery, in France’s plantation colonies in 1802.</p>
<p>This included Napoleon’s <a href="https://www.historytoday.com/archive/feature/wrongful-death-toussaint-louverture">dastardly betrayal of Toussaint Louverture</a>, the Saint-Dominguan leader every bit as <a href="https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250800053/blackspartacus">complex, consequential and worthy</a> of a Hollywood blockbuster as his captor. </p>
<p>Coupled with <a href="https://doi.org/10.1353/fch.2005.0007">yellow fever</a>, the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/00313220500106196">genocidal</a> violence in Saint-Domingue claimed <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/20/world/americas/haiti-aristide-reparations-france.html">more French soldiers than Waterloo</a>.</p>
<p>Along with its most profitable colony, the quagmire cost France its moral standing as the first European empire to abolish slavery. With the <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/how-the-louisiana-purchase-changed-the-world-79715124/">sale of Louisiana</a>, France’s dreams of a North American empire were quashed.</p>
<h2>Legacy of global legal code</h2>
<p>On remote <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/journey-st-helen-home-napoleon-last-days-180971638/">Saint Helena</a>, Scott captures the angst of an authoritarian deprived of authority, hobbled by hubris but still incapable of accepting responsibility for his errors and crimes.</p>
<p>What the movie does not show, however, is Napoleon’s clear-sighted appraisal of his most enduring legacy.</p>
<p>While in captivity, he told his entourage that his “real glory” was attained off the battlefield. If his final defeat would “destroy the memory” of his forty military victories, he took solace in the belief that “<a href="https://lasc.libguides.com/c.php?g=259216&p=1741864">nothing will destroy…my Civil Code</a>.” </p>
<p>This has proven true not only in countries that were occupied or colonized by France, but as far afield as Meiji-era Japan and pre-revolutionary Iran, which used the Napoleonic template for their own codification projects. Versions of the code are still in effect in <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Napoleonic-Code">multiple countries today</a>.</p>
<p>If Napoleonic tactics faltered at <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Battle-of-Trafalgar-European-history">Trafalgar</a>, <a href="https://ageofrevolution.org/200-object/the-battle-of-vertieres">Vertières</a> and <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Battle-of-Waterloo">Waterloo</a>, the precedent set by the Civil Code has proven unconquerable. </p>
<p>Michael Broers, the <a href="https://www.napoleon.org/en/magazine/publications/napoleon-soldier-of-destiny-volume-i/">accomplished</a> <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/ca/europe-under-napoleon-9781350157675/">scholar</a> who advised Scott, has said legal intricacies “<a href="https://bigthink.com/high-culture/napoleon-ridley-scott/">don’t make for good cinema</a>.” </p>
<p>It has been <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0472027/">done</a>, <a href="https://www.stlouisfed.org/on-the-economy/2020/november/unleasing-hamilton-financial-revolution">however</a>. Perhaps Scott’s much-anticipated <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/obsessed/ridley-scotts-4-hour-napoleon-cut-why-i-cant-wait-to-see-it">director’s cut</a> will defy expectations by exploring some of these conundrums when it streams this spring.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/219762/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kelly Summers does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Ridley Scott’s focus on Napoleon’s tactical triumphs, reckless miscalculations and sexual entanglements neglects his paradoxical legacy as a lawmaker.
Kelly Summers, Assistant Professor of History, Department of Humanities, MacEwan University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/218965
2023-12-08T14:55:12Z
2023-12-08T14:55:12Z
Napoleon: ignore the griping over historical details, Ridley Scott’s film is a meditation on the madness of power
<p>While Ridley Scott’s Napoleon has been causing <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/nov/25/napoleon-film-ridley-scott-critics-miitary-expert-battle-scenes">consternation among some historians</a>, they are overlooking the fact that the historical record does actually support the film’s narrative in terms of one man taking power and shaping a new order during times of revolution and chaos.</p>
<p>Set against the bloody backdrop of the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/French-Revolution">French revolution</a> (1789-1799), Empress Josephine – a beautifully judged performance by Vanessa Kirby – who narrowly escaped <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Maximilien-Robespierre">Robespierre’s</a> guillotine, loves Napoleon for his power and image. </p>
<p>In turn, the general (played by a much older Joaquin Phoenix – Napoleon at this point was 30, Phoenix is 49, but is so good it is easy to overlook this detail that had historians squawking), is obsessed with Josephine. The film unfolds in an unpredictable narrative, laying bare the poignant letters that expose the complex love/hate relationship they share. </p>
<p>But Napoleon’s Egyptian trip is interrupted by rumours of Josephine’s infidelity, compelling him to return home in secret. He justifies this with the need to monitor the turbulence that threatens the cohesion of France. </p>
<p>By illuminating Napoleon in different shades – sometimes as a passionate being devoted to his love for Josephine, and sometimes as a military genius leading his troops – Scott manages to bring us into the intimacy of power. This comes at a time when France faces the temptation to turn back the clock and deviate from its revolutionary ideals by <a href="https://www.cairn.info/revue-napoleonica-la-revue-2008-2-page-16.htm">restoring the <em>ancien régime</em></a> (the system of prior to the French Revolution).</p>
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<h2>Picking his moments</h2>
<p>The film avoids descending into excessive carnage and instead maintains a fast pace with carefully chosen scenes. The intention is not to reproduce every detail of Napoleon’s life, but rather to present the powerful French general who captured the world’s attention for more than 15 years.</p>
<p>On the geopolitical front, the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Siege-of-Toulon">battle of Toulon</a> was fought in 1793, where Napoleon surprised British troops by taking possession of their fleet. Then came the conquest of Egypt, whose scenes, no doubt exaggerated (such as the destruction of the pyramids and the opening of a sarcophagus), form part of Scott’s artistic interpretation.</p>
<p>When Napoleon’s hat rises above the corpse in the sarcophagus, it recalls <a href="https://theclassicreview.com/beginners-guides/mozart-requiem-a-beginners-guide/">Mozart’s Requiem</a> – death slowly approaching in these carefully choreographed moments of destruction. The <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Battle-of-Austerlitz">battle of Austerlitz</a> is admirably rendered, with Napoleon’s memorable strategic manoeuvre outsmarting the enemy by making them think there was a weak point where he could attack.</p>
<p>By letting the enemy surround him on both flanks, Napoleon used the strategic advantage to fight superior opposing armies. He then meets <a href="https://www.napoleon.org/en/history-of-the-two-empires/biographies/alexander-i/">Tsar Alexander I</a>, portrayed by a young actor. Scott uses the age aspect to show the ambivalence of Napoleon’s relationship with power. Napoleon thinks he is dealing with a young tsar, less experienced and impressed by the large army.</p>
<p>The fact that they have a common enemy is not enough to unite them, and the director gives the viewer a powerful wink when Phoenix sits on the abandoned throne of Alexander I, a leader who preferred to burn his cities to starve the great army.</p>
<p>It is as if we have a second version of Scott’s Oscar-winning <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2000/may/12/3">Gladiator</a> here, with Napoleon as Emperor Commodus, unable to accept the rationality of reality and stubbornly stuck in a form of hubris that will claim the lives of more than <a href="https://www.history.com/news/napoleons-disastrous-invasion-of-russia">500,000 soldiers</a>.</p>
<p>The “spirit of the world”, as the philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel called Napoleon, is now no more than a shadow of his former self, aware that death is never far away. Scott chooses to show us a man who, despite the exaggerations, is sincere and direct, capable of winning the respect of soldiers and leading them into difficult battles.</p>
<h2>History and power</h2>
<p>The film is rich in subtle nuances, alternating between the tragic, the farcical and the grotesque, as power often manifests itself in this paradoxical arena. Karl Marx, a keen observer of the upheavals in France, showed no hesitation in his <a href="https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1852/18th-brumaire/">book on Napoleon’s coup d'état</a> in emphasising the tragic and comic recurrences in history.</p>
<p>A despot always creates successors, and history is found in parodic reincarnations. <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Napoleon-III-emperor-of-France">Napoleon III</a> was, for instance, a pale replica of Napoleon I, losing most of <a href="https://history.state.gov/milestones/1861-1865/french-intervention">his wars</a>. In fact, Napoleon III tried to mimic the leadership style of Napoleon without being able to reconcile monarchist and republican forces. Although he succeeded in modernising the country, he never really established himself as a leading figure in the memory of the French people. </p>
<p>In Scott’s film, we can feel the postmodern hesitation between the old and the new world. Historically, Napoleon consolidated the gains of the Revolution, and the French are grateful to him for ending this phase. This prevented a complete return to the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/ancien-regime"><em>ancien régime</em></a>, despite the illusions of the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Bourbon-Restoration">counter-revolutionary Restoration regime</a> after the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Congress-of-Vienna">Congress of Vienna</a>.</p>
<p>That is why this film is an absolute must-see. Through the fiction, sometimes surpassed by the brutal reality, the viewer is invited to immerse themselves in the madness of power and its irreversible impact on the fate of nations.</p>
<p>There is also an underlying appeal to not just read history to trace the past, but rather to understand the experience of power madness. Scott has undoubtedly created the film that <a href="https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20190808-was-napoleon-the-greatest-film-never-made">Stanley Kubrick dreamed of making</a>. Don’t miss it.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/218965/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Christophe Premat does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Ridley Scott’s film is not intended to paint a romanticised image of Napoleon, but rather immerse the viewer in the dilemmas and complexities of power.
Christophe Premat, Associate Professor in French Studies (cultural studies), head of the Centre for Canadian Studies, Stockholm University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/201179
2023-09-25T20:06:59Z
2023-09-25T20:06:59Z
Explainer: the philosophy of Jean-Jacques Rousseau is profoundly contemporary
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/548194/original/file-20230914-21-58a3d9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C161%2C3988%2C2826&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Jean-Jacques Rousseau – Maurice Quentin de La Tour (1753).</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jean-Jacques_Rousseau_(painted_portrait).jpg">Public domain</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>By any reckoning, Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) is one of the most influential Western philosophers in history. No account of the modern era – not just modern thought – could ignore him. Few courses in political or social theory would think to omit him. </p>
<p>It is therefore worth coming to grips with his thought and its legacy. But like any major thinker, there are risks in summaries – some of which give us clues about Rousseau himself.</p>
<p>Although he is known as a social and political philosopher, Rousseau’s creative output does not resemble that of a contemporary “theorist”. He was not only a writer of treatises, but fiction, autobiographical works (such as <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/files/3913/3913-h/3913-h.htm">Confessions</a> and <a href="https://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks19/1900981h.html">Reveries of a Solitary Walker</a>) and musical compositions, including seven operas, some of which were notable enough to be acknowledged by composers like Gluck and Mozart. </p>
<p>But there is another, stranger difficulty in summarising Rousseau’s thought. It is not that his work is alien and distant to us, as might be the case with certain other thinkers. It is that his ideas reflect many of our own deepest commitments and patterns of thought. They are as close to us as the clichés heard on reality television shows and the bromides on offer in certain kinds of self-help books. They are the common coin of much political rhetoric. </p>
<p>It has been my experience in teaching philosophy and social theory over many years that where Plato can come across as unbearably strange, Descartes as either glib or insane, large parts of Rousseau will often strike students as mere common sense. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/545426/original/file-20230830-19-3qvkjp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/545426/original/file-20230830-19-3qvkjp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/545426/original/file-20230830-19-3qvkjp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=925&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/545426/original/file-20230830-19-3qvkjp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=925&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/545426/original/file-20230830-19-3qvkjp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=925&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/545426/original/file-20230830-19-3qvkjp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1163&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/545426/original/file-20230830-19-3qvkjp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1163&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/545426/original/file-20230830-19-3qvkjp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1163&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<p>Rousseau’s epistolary novel, <a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/distributed/J/bo44894180.html">Julie, or the New Héloïse</a> (1761), reads clunkily these days. For most modern readers, its story of a doomed love affair between an aristocrat and her tutor is too mawkish, sentimental and melodramatic. </p>
<p>Yet its themes are profoundly contemporary. It suggests that authenticity should take precedence over what is expected of us by convention, that the dictates of tradition only make sense if they gel with our “inner truths” – with who we feel ourselves to be as individuals. These are now conventional tropes, but they were only emerging at the time Rousseau was writing. </p>
<h2>Natural or artificial</h2>
<p>To say the novel struck a chord would be to seriously understate matters. Julie was likely the biggest-selling novel of the 18th century. People were so moved by it that they wrote to Rousseau en masse. A vast number of correspondents were women proposing marriage. </p>
<p>Others, as the historian Robert Darnton has pointed out, were merely overwhelmed: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>The novel drove J.-F. Bastide to his bed and nearly drove him mad, or so he believed, while it produced the opposite effect on Daniel Roguin, who sobbed so violently that he cured himself of a severe cold. The baron de La Sarraz declared that the only way to read the book was behind locked doors, so that one could weep at one’s ease, without being interrupted by the servants. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Rousseau had shot to fame a decade earlier, after winning an essay competition advertised in the literary magazine <em>Mercure de France</em>. Held by the Academy of Dijon, the competition asked entrants to write an essay in response to the question: “Has the restoration of the sciences and arts contributed to the purification of morals?”</p>
<p>Put another way, the question asked: does moral progress go hand in hand with progress in the arts and sciences?</p>
<p>The question was posed at a time when the answer seemed obvious. The mood of the period was one of extraordinary optimism about human progress. Figures such as Diderot, Voltaire and Montesquieu shared a belief that the world had reached the age of Enlightenment and that future development was unlimited. As such, the expected answer was: “Yes, of course!” </p>
<p>Rousseau instead answered: “No, not at all – quite the opposite.” He argued that progress in the arts and sciences had actually led us away from moral progress, and he offered philosophical and historical reasons to think this true. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/545425/original/file-20230829-21-8099nf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/545425/original/file-20230829-21-8099nf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/545425/original/file-20230829-21-8099nf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=738&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/545425/original/file-20230829-21-8099nf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=738&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/545425/original/file-20230829-21-8099nf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=738&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/545425/original/file-20230829-21-8099nf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=927&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/545425/original/file-20230829-21-8099nf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=927&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/545425/original/file-20230829-21-8099nf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=927&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Jean-Jacques Rousseau – François Guérin (c.1760)</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:%27Portrait_of_Jean-Jacques_Rousseau%27_by_Fran%C3%A7ois_Gu%C3%A9rin.jpg">Public domain</a></span>
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<p>Part of his method was to introduce and sharpen a distinction that has become integral to the thought of all subsequent eras. Where much philosophical discussion had been centred around the distinction between the “natural” and the “supernatural”, Rousseau opposed the natural to the <em>artificial</em>.</p>
<p>He argued that what we ordinarily think of as civilisational progress creates – and then aims to satisfy – new and artificial vices, serving our vanity and not our natural needs. For example, where the “natural man” (<em>homme naturel</em>) gets thirsty and needs water, the “artificial” man (<em>homme artificiel</em>) thinks he needs “designer water” curated by a “water sommelier” and served on a silver tray. </p>
<p>Rousseau thought no good argument could be made that the rural Swiss or Native Americans possessed less virtue or happiness than the most civilised Europeans. In fact, he proposed there were many good reasons to think they were greater in both. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/guide-to-the-classics-voltaires-candide-a-darkly-satirical-tale-of-human-folly-in-times-of-crisis-157131">Guide to the Classics: Voltaire’s Candide — a darkly satirical tale of human folly in times of crisis</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Society and inequality</h2>
<p>Developing these ideas, in 1754, Rousseau wrote his <a href="https://www.files.ethz.ch/isn/125494/5019_Rousseau_Discourse_on_the_Origin_of_Inequality.pdf">Discourse on the Origin and Basis of Inequality Among Men</a>. In it, he attempted a thought experiment which imagined what humans may have been like in a “pre-civilisational” state. </p>
<p>Rousseau was aware that this act of imagination was speculative and he could not be sure of its results. But his focus was not historical: he wanted to see if he could, hypothetically, strip away the accretions of civilisation to see what a human being was in its most basic mode. </p>
<p>Humans, he thought, were fundamentally solitary creatures, most at home alone or in small groups. He suggested that “natural man” would come together with others sometimes, but would soon part ways, so issues like envy or resentment would rarely arise. </p>
<p>For Rousseau, natural inequalities would have no serious consequences in the state of nature. For instance, if you spent time with someone who was stronger than you, intimidated you, bossed you around and stole your food, you would simply wait until they were asleep and leave.</p>
<p>Rousseau hypothesised that some historical tragedy, perhaps a natural catastrophe, had prompted human beings to create “societies”. That particular form of social organisation proved permanent, pushing away all other modes of being, other natural forms of human sociality.</p>
<p>When people formed societies they acquired certain comforts, but created a host of problems. Rousseau claimed that everyone was born free and equal, but societies imposed a sense of ownership over resources and divisions of labour, which caused conflict and social injustice. He held that inequality was artificial. And yet once inequalities arose, arbitrary power maintained them and artificial man naturalised them, making them seem like reflections of nature. </p>
<p>Our artificial needs thus became the centre of our lives. We gradually required not just shelter but the best house on the block, not just food but cuisine. Such an existence has bred mutual alienation between people. Only in the bustling metropolitan streets of Paris or London would a person simply step over someone who is destitute. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/criticism-of-western-civilisation-isnt-new-it-was-part-of-the-enlightenment-104567">Criticism of Western Civilisation isn't new, it was part of the Enlightenment</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Education and politics</h2>
<p>What was the solution to this sorry state of affairs? For Rousseau, there were two main remedies to the debasement of our nature. The first was the institution of a new kind of education; the second was reorienting politics towards a new moral foundation. </p>
<p>In <a href="https://oll.libertyfund.org/title/rousseau-emile-or-education">Émile, or On Education</a> (1862), Rousseau wrote a treatise on education in the form of a bildungsroman – the first and likely the last of its kind. He sought to outline the conditions of a good education, which he thought should be based on lived experience and the development of individual character, not rote learning, mechanical memorisation, or even the reading of books. (He makes a lone exception for Robinson Crusoe, which he did think students should read.) </p>
<p>As for moral education, young people should learn about the consequences of their actions. What would be the punishment for a child breaking a window? They should be made to sleep in a cold room.</p>
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<p>The second means by which Rousseau thought we could rediscover natural man was through the social contract, in which people would voluntarily cede some of their freedom to a sovereign power who expressed the “general will”. This general will is the sole source of the state’s sovereign authority. </p>
<p>This is a paradigmatic form of democratic theory, but Rousseau did not see it as merely this. He thought that this particular mode of government might help to make citizens moral, to move them beyond mere self-seeking. For Rousseau, the social contract entails the idea that one can only pursue one’s own happiness by pursuing everyone else’s. In this sense, government would function the way a cooperative corporation might: individual efforts lead to everyone’s gain; selfishness produces gains for nobody, including the self-seeker.</p>
<p>Rousseau’s ideas were a significant departure from the political and social theories that were popular at the time. His emphasis on the value of individual freedom and equality, and the government’s duty in preserving these principles, contributed to many developments – theoretical and practical – in the modern world. </p>
<p>The French and American Revolutions and the advancement of modern political philosophy were significantly influenced by his work. In his most significant works, he demolished the notion that monarchies were divinely appointed. He proposed the revolutionary idea that the people alone have the true right to govern. These ideas helped to end the centuries-old relationship between church, crown and country. They laid the groundwork for classic republicanism: a system of mixed governance based on the principles of civil society and citizenship.</p>
<p>Rousseau’s terminology has oriented discussions of morality, self-development and politics from the 18th century to the counterculture of the 1960s, the New Age movement of the 1980s, and beyond. We see traces – and sometimes more – of Rousseau in the celebration of the simple and the “primitive” (including the racist legacies of such misconstrued faint praise).</p>
<p>His legacy also continues in those currents of thought which see culture as decadent, and which see the solution to this in getting in touch with nature, our own inner natures, and in following our own paths. He has some claim to be the inspiration of parts of “child-centred education”, of what became known in some circles as “progressivism”. Without Rousseau, it is hard to imagine the existence of Steiner and Montessori Schools.</p>
<h2>Deism and human nature</h2>
<p>While it is true Rousseau was – in his early career at least – a celebrity intellectual, he was also the target of much criticism, and even persecution.</p>
<p>He was a close friend of many atheist philosophers, but a fierce critic of them. He was, equally, a trenchant critic of revealed religions. The God of revealed religion was a God of vengeance, intolerance and petty vice, revealed to some and not others merely by virtue of an accident of birth. Rousseau thought no God worthy of the name would reveal itself in such outrageous and contradictory ways. </p>
<p>The term “deism” has come to refer to a kind of impersonal, detached creator, but Rousseau’s deist God was nothing of the sort. According to Rousseau, we know what we know of God from Nature and Reason alone. Thus religion itself had become, like many civilisational developments, one of the great corruptors of humanity.</p>
<p>Rousseau was ridiculed by atheists for his religious views and by orthodox Christians for his critique of revealed religion, but the views he espoused have become a standard “secular” creed, perpetuated by people who claim to be “spiritual but not religious.” </p>
<p>Many have questioned Rousseau’s conception of human nature, thinking it wrong or overly idealistic – or at least very partial. What evidence is there, critics ask, for the idea that humans are good creatures perverted by society? From where does this idea of “natural man” derive?</p>
<p>In <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dialogues:_Rousseau,_Judge_of_Jean-Jacques">Rousseau, Judge of Jean-Jacques</a> (1776), Rousseau addresses this question directly, and in typically Rousseauian fashion: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>whence could the painter and apologist of human nature have taken his model, if not from his own heart? He has described this nature just as he felt it within himself.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Much in his philosophy hangs on this verdict. It reads as a peculiarly pallid justification of his method, but it is an honest one – and an admission which could be said of many theories and theorists. </p>
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<p>We often read academic works as though they were written objectively, yet we know they often spring from the subjective preoccupations of their authors. Anyone who has read enough evolutionary psychology, for instance, will come to suspect the deeply personal – indeed, sometimes almost voyeuristic – nature of what is claimed to be universal. </p>
<p>In an era where the relation between person and theorist – or person and artist – is the subject of fascination, even obsession, Rousseau’s life scandalises us. This self-declared lover of peace and goodwill seemed to engineer most of his relationships to devolve into catastrophe; the man who argued even for the barbarity of the wet-nurse entrusted five of his own children to orphanages. Rousseau is one of the richest illustrations of the liberal who loves humanity, but is much less certain about humans. </p>
<p>At a time when the <em>ad hominem</em> is not seen so much as a fallacy but the <em>sine qua non</em> of intellectual lucidity, what are we to do not just with Rousseau, but with our own Rousseauism? The tension he felt between the outer and the inner is our fate too. The world we live in is in many ways his, as much as we would sometimes like this not to be the case.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/201179/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Chris Fleming does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
The ideas of Rousseau reflect many of our own deepest commitments and patterns of thought.
Chris Fleming, Associate Professor in the School of Humanities and Communication Arts, Western Sydney University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/212636
2023-09-24T15:30:31Z
2023-09-24T15:30:31Z
Debate: Why France needs the Fifth Republic
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/549370/original/file-20230920-17-pboaim.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C2048%2C1361&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">French citizens celebrate Emmanuel Macron's victory in the country's 2017 presidential elections. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/number7cloud/34527195605">Lorie Shaull/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>France’s current constitution is its fifth, and it’s built for stability – literally. Established in 1958 after the government collapsed in the throes of the Algerian War, the new constitution featured a president with considerable powers. That made the country’s governments more stable – a welcome change from the Third and Fourth Republics – but it’s also left opposition parties consistently frustrated.</p>
<p>There have long been calls for greater proportionality in the National Assembly – then-President Francois Mitterrand <a href="https://www.liberation.fr/politique/proportionnelle-en-1986-cetait-un-coup-politique-de-mitterrand-20210220_XQE5EOMTNRALTHP64S72N7LPHM/">heeded them in 1986</a>, albeit in an attempt to prevent defeat in the legislative elections. In the last decade they’ve grown louder, however, with parties on the left and right insisting that the composition of the assembly should more closely mirror the results of presidential elections.</p>
<p>In 2022, both the far right (Rassemblement National) and the far left (La France Insoumise) successfully sent a staggering number of representatives to the assembly. However unprecedented, this result only confirmed that any political party needs local anchorage and time to climb the constitutional ladder. But for La France Insoumise, the Fifth Republic – regardless of the stability it has brought to the country – should be abolished and replaced by a new constitution that, to put it in a nutshell, <a href="https://www.lefigaro.fr/politique/2013/05/04/01002-20130504ARTFIG00271-la-vie-republique-en-six-principes.php">strangely resembles that of the Third Republic</a>.</p>
<h2>Taming executive power, ensuring political stablity</h2>
<p>In a lecture titled “France: Politics, Power, and Protest” given at University College Dublin, I strove to explain to undergraduate students that the successive régimes stemmed from both a willingness to tame the executive power and a quest to ensure political stability. The Third Republic (1870–1940) modernised the country and implemented state laws that schooled multiple generations into becoming citizens. It was not without flaws: between 1876 and 1940, <a href="https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.149663/page/n203/mode/2up?view=theater&q=103+cabinets">101 cabinets came and went</a>, essentially due to parliamentary instability and a total absence of authority within the executive power.</p>
<p>France’s defeat in 1940 finished off the Third Republic and eventually led to the Vichy Régime. The Fourth Republic only lasted from 1946 to 1958, yet paved the way for European integration. The war in Algeria convinced the authorities of the time, in particular Charles de Gaulle, that a new system of governance was needed, and the <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/why-france-its-fifth-republic-180962983/">Fifth Republic was born</a>.</p>
<p>Out of self-respect perhaps, the French Revolution has always been taught to secondary and high-school pupils as an ethnocentric turning point, completely disconnected from foreign experiences. Before and in the aftermath of the revolution, however, an entire generation of would-be revolutionaries looked toward the United States. Concepts such as checks and balances, bicameral system, and the centralisation of the decision-making process in the hands of the legislative power intrigued minds in Europe. Prominent French intellectuals regularly met with the thinkers behind these concepts. Thomas Jefferson, who served as minister plenipotentiary for France (1785–1789), was befriended by Condorcet and Mirabeau. In this way, acquaintances and networks between American and French élites <a href="https://quod.lib.umich.edu/w/wsfh/0642292.0035.012/--alien-origins-of-the-french-revolution-american-scottish?rgn=main;view=fulltext">fed the revolution</a>.</p>
<p>Later, Alexis de Tocqueville’s <em>Democracy in America</em>, published in 1835, confirmed in French political thought the image of the United States as an appropriate governmental system where the separation of powers – an idea heavily influenced by the thinking of political philosopher Montesquieu – to ensure personal liberties to American citizens.</p>
<h2>Looking to Germany and the UK</h2>
<p>Today, when <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/16/opinion/france-elections-melenchon-macron.html">finding fault with France’s institutions</a>, the systems of neighbouring countries such as Germany and Britain are often brought up. The comparison is not apt, however, for British and German parliamentary systems <a href="https://www.lemonde.fr/idees/article/2022/07/12/une-recomposition-politique-sur-le-modele-allemand-ne-peut-se-realiser-sur-des-bases-factices_6134410_3232.html">do not meet France’s standards for process and governance</a>. And while such systems succeed in Britain and Germany, France’s history has shown that it is a nation that regards political compromise as a sign of institutional weakness.</p>
<p>Further, it would be inconceivable for French taxpayers to accept the existence of a shadow president and watch a prime minister elected by indirect universal suffrage touring the capitals of Europe and negotiating bills and policies. Nothing today, save for unpopular reforms presented to parliament and <a href="https://www.lepoint.fr/politique/pres-de-trois-francais-sur-quatre-sont-mecontents-d-emmanuel-macron-22-04-2023-2517400_20.php">Emmanuel Macron’s general unpopularity</a> can justify overthrowing France’s constitution. On that point, Macron’s <a href="https://www.lemonde.fr/en/politics/article/2023/03/17/french-pension-reform-macron-s-isolation-revealed-by-recourse-to-article-49-3_6019685_5.html">repeated use of the article 49.3</a> to ram the government’s retirement reform has <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/may/06/vive-la-revolution-but-is-france-ready-to-establish-a-sixth-republic">comforted advocates of a “Sixth Republic”</a>, who feel that the current constitution gives too much power to a single individual.</p>
<p>France’s current constitution consolidates the state, secures constitutional representations, and permits a coalition between the government and the president in times of crisis. It permits the executive power to react quickly, summon the National Assembly, and implement political responses when needed. Most importantly, it guarantees to the president the constitutional ability to act in the domestic sphere while leading the foreign policy of the country. All the mechanisms consolidate the three branches of power while permitting the president to participate both in domestic politics and represent France on the international scene.</p>
<p>But is this too much power? In 1964, then-<em>député</em> François Mitterrand published an essay declaring his opposition to the Fifth Republic, arguing that the institutions had been framed for a single leader, Charles de Gaulle. The title of Mitterrand’s book spoke for itself: <a href="https://www.mitterrand.org/le-coup-d-etat-permanent-465.html"><em>The Permanent Coup d’État</em></a>. When he was elected president in 1981, however, he accepted the role of presidential monarch after having so <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-60th-anniversary-of-frances-fifth-republic-out-of-breath-105747">vehemently criticised it</a>.</p>
<h2>The flip side of power</h2>
<p>Power is a precious gift, to be used with caution. While the Fifth Republic certainly confers great power to its presidents, and so draws <a href="https://www.france24.com/en/europe/20230413-france-to-witness-12th-nationwide-day-of-protests-against-macron-s-pension-law">political hatred and violence against them</a> (rather than against the assembly), this system guarantees political stability. Calling for the establishment of new institutions at a time of social crisis and spreading populism is not productive. The optics also aren’t good: the image projected is that of modern revolutionaries, handsomely paid by the very institutions they wish to overthrow, cheering the idea that Emmanuel Macron could precipitate the fall of the Fifth Republic.</p>
<p>The strength of the Fifth Republic is that presidents can articulate a vision for the country. They can guide, define priorities, and pave the way for big projects. That was the case in 1975 when President Valérie Giscard d’Estaing and Minister for Health Simone Veil furthered women’s rights by legalising abortion. So too was Mitterrand’s <a href="https://www.france24.com/en/europe/20210918-french-public-divided-over-death-penalty-40-years-after-its-abolishment">abolition of the death penalty in 1981</a> and Francois Holland’s <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-22579093">legalisation of same-sex marriage</a> in 2013.</p>
<p>Any French president is entitled to follow their political conscience. It is then up to parliament to debate the vision and initiatives and to the <a href="https://www.lemonde.fr/en/les-decodeurs/article/2022/05/02/what-can-the-french-president-do-with-or-without-a-parliamentary-majority_5982224_8.html">Constitutional Council to validate the final text</a>.</p>
<p>Citizens across France certainly <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-brief-history-of-the-long-standing-mistrust-between-the-french-people-and-the-elites-165569">distrust Emmanuel Macron</a>, but this need not entail an automatic rejection of the nation’s institutions. What France needs now is political stability and time to address issues that other European countries also face. And the present constitution positions the nation’s leadership for precisely that. France has tried many régimes in the past, and the Fifth Republic is effective – it is appropriate for the times in which we live and for democracy, and allows broad political representation and legitimacy. While it certainly places significant power into the hands of a single person, the constitution ensures that it is still up to the people to decide who shall govern their lives.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/212636/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Emmanuel Destenay ne travaille pas, ne conseille pas, ne possède pas de parts, ne reçoit pas de fonds d'une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n'a déclaré aucune autre affiliation que son organisme de recherche.</span></em></p>
Opposition forces in France are using the president’s unpopularity to push for a new constitution. It’s a dangerous game.
Emmanuel Destenay, Research Fellow, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/200455
2023-07-12T20:04:17Z
2023-07-12T20:04:17Z
The French Revolution executed royals and nobles, yes – but most people killed were commoners
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532596/original/file-20230619-27-5n6nw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C15%2C3493%2C2098&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/V0041212/full/full/0/default.jpg">Wellcome Collection</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>For a lot of people, mention of the French Revolution conjures up images of wealthy nobles being led to the guillotine. Thanks to countless movies, books and half-remembered history lessons, many have been left with the impression the revolution was chiefly about chopping off the heads of kings, queens, dukes and other cashed-up aristocrats.</p>
<p>But as we approach what’s known in English as Bastille Day and in French as <em>Quatorze Juillet</em> – a date commemorating events of July 14 in 1789 that came to symbolise the French Revolution – it’s worth correcting this common misconception.</p>
<p>In fact, most people executed during the French Revolution – and particularly in its perceived bloodiest era, the nine-month “<a href="https://www.worldhistory.org/Reign_of_Terror/">Reign of Terror</a>” between autumn 1793 and summer 1794 – were commoners.</p>
<p>As historian Donald Greer <a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674282445">wrote</a>: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>[…] more carters than princes were executed, more day labourers than dukes and marquises, three or four times as many servants than parliamentarians. The Terror swept French society from base to comb; its victims form a complete cross section of the social order of the Ancien régime.</p>
</blockquote>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-bastille-day-and-why-is-it-celebrated-163812">What is Bastille Day and why is it celebrated?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>The ‘national razor’</h2>
<p>The guillotine was first put to use on April 15 1792 when a common thief called <a href="https://www.lhistoire.fr/%C3%A9ph%C3%A9m%C3%A9ride/25-avril-1792-la-guillotine-tombe-pour-la-premi%C3%A8re-fois">Pelletier</a> was executed. Initially seen as an instrument of <a href="https://www.history.com/news/8-things-you-may-not-know-about-the-guillotine">equality</a>, however, the guillotine soon acquired a grim reputation for its list of famous victims.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530054/original/file-20230605-19-crv4bw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530054/original/file-20230605-19-crv4bw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=916&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530054/original/file-20230605-19-crv4bw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=916&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530054/original/file-20230605-19-crv4bw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=916&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530054/original/file-20230605-19-crv4bw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1151&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530054/original/file-20230605-19-crv4bw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1151&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530054/original/file-20230605-19-crv4bw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1151&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Miniature guillotine, French revolution era, Musée Carnavalet.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Les musées de la ville de Paris</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Among those who died under the “national razor” (the guillotine’s nickname) were King Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette, many revolutionary leaders such as <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Georges-Danton">Georges Danton</a>, <a href="https://www.historytoday.com/miscellanies/french-revolutions-angel-death">Louis de Saint-Just</a> and <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Maximilien-Robespierre">Maximilien Robespierre</a>. Scientist <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Antoine-Lavoisier">Antoine Lavoisier,</a> pre-romantic poet <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Andre-Marie-de-Chenier">André Chénier</a>, feminist <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/01/feminist-olympe-de-gouges-pantheon">Olympe de Gouges</a> and <a href="https://histoire-image.org/etudes/couple-tourmente-revolutionnaire">legendary lovers</a> Camille and Lucie Desmoulins were among its victims.</p>
<p>But it wasn’t just “celebrities” executed at the guillotine.</p>
<p>While reliable figures on the definitive number of people guillotined during the Revolution are hard to find, historians commonly project <a href="https://journals.openedition.org/aad/3585">between 15,000 and 17,000</a> people were guillotined across France.</p>
<p>The bulk of it occurred during the the Reign of Terror.</p>
<p>When the decision was made to centralise all (legal) executions in Paris, 1,376 people were guillotined over <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Revolutionary-Tribunal-French-history">just 47 days</a>, between June 10 and July 27 1794. That’s about 30 a day.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530055/original/file-20230605-29-wofosl.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530055/original/file-20230605-29-wofosl.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530055/original/file-20230605-29-wofosl.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=509&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530055/original/file-20230605-29-wofosl.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=509&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530055/original/file-20230605-29-wofosl.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=509&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530055/original/file-20230605-29-wofosl.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=639&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530055/original/file-20230605-29-wofosl.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=639&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530055/original/file-20230605-29-wofosl.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=639&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The bulk of the executions occurred during the The Reign of Terror.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Bibliothèque nationale de France</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The guillotine wasn’t the only method</h2>
<p>However, the guillotine represents just one way people were executed.</p>
<p>Historians estimate around <a href="https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015002601550&view=1up&seq=9">20,000</a> men and women were summarily killed – either shot, stabbed or <a href="https://www.worldhistory.org/Drownings_at_Nantes/">drowned</a> – during the Terror across France.</p>
<p>They also estimate that in just under five days, <a href="https://www.ucl.ac.uk/museums-static/obl4he/frenchrevolution/18_the_massacres.html">1,500 people</a> died at the hands of Parisian mobs during the 1792 September massacres.</p>
<p>More broadly, around <a href="https://www.aphg.fr/Sur-la-guerre-de-Vendee-et-le-concept-de-genocide">170,000 civilians</a> died in the civil <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Wars-of-the-Vendee">Wars of the Vendée</a>, while more than <a href="https://www.napoleon.org/en/history-of-the-two-empires/articles/bullet-point-6-napoleon-responsible-deaths-millions-soldiers/">700,000 French soldiers</a> lost their lives across the 1792-1815 period.</p>
<p>The vast <a href="https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015002601550&view=1up&seq=9">majority</a> of these people killed were ordinary French men and women, not members of the elite.</p>
<p>Overall, Greer <a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674282445">estimates</a> 8.5% of the Terror’s victims belonged to the nobility, 6.5% to the clergy, and 85% to the Third Estate (meaning non-clerics and non-nobles). Women represented 9% of the total (but 20% and 14% of the noble and clerical categories, respectively).</p>
<p>Priests who had <a href="https://www.historytoday.com/archive/french-revolution-and-catholic-church">refused</a> to take the oath of loyalty to the Revolution, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/emigre">émigrés</a> who had fled the country, hoarders and profiteers who made the <a href="https://alphahistory.com/frenchrevolution/law-of-the-maximum/">price of bread</a> much dearer, or political <a href="https://alphahistory.com/frenchrevolution/girondins-and-montagnards/">opponents</a> of the moment, all were deemed “<a href="https://www.marxists.org/history/france/revolution/robespierre/1794/enemies.htm">enemies of the Revolution</a>”.</p>
<h2>Why was so much blood shed during the Reign of Terror?</h2>
<p>The paranoia of the regime in 1793–94 was the result of various factors. </p>
<p>France fought at its borders against a <a href="https://www.worldhistory.org/War_of_the_First_Coalition/">coalition</a> led by Europe’s monarchs to nip the revolution in the bud before it could threaten their thrones. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, civil war ravaged the west and south of France, <a href="https://manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9780719082153/">conspiracy rumours</a> circulated across the country, and political infighting intensified in Paris between <a href="https://revolution.chnm.org/items/show/444">opposing factions</a>.</p>
<p>All these factors led to a series of laws voted up in late 1793 that enabled the expedited judgement of thousands of people suspected of counterrevolutionary beliefs. </p>
<p>The measures contained in the infamous “<a href="https://revolution.chnm.org/d/417/">Law of Suspects</a>” were, however, relaxed in the summer of 1794 and completely abolished in October 1795.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532598/original/file-20230619-19-4a5amn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Queen Marie Antoinette led to her execution on a horse-cart on the 16th of October 1793." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532598/original/file-20230619-19-4a5amn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532598/original/file-20230619-19-4a5amn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532598/original/file-20230619-19-4a5amn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532598/original/file-20230619-19-4a5amn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532598/original/file-20230619-19-4a5amn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532598/original/file-20230619-19-4a5amn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532598/original/file-20230619-19-4a5amn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The fate of Queen Marie-Antoinette and its many depictions in pop culture has influenced how many people think of the Revolution.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/V0041870/full/full/0/default.jpg">Aquatint with engraving by C. Silanio after Aloisin, 1793/Wellcome Collection</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>How the focus came to be on beheaded nobility</h2>
<p>For many people, however, mention of this period of French history leads to the vision of a bloodthirsty Revolution indiscriminately sending to their death thousands of nobles. </p>
<p>This is largely influenced by the fate of Queen Marie-Antoinette and its many depictions in <a href="https://www.eviemagazine.com/post/marie-antoinette-most-hated-queen-of-france-pop-culture-icon">pop culture</a>.</p>
<p>British <a href="https://www.brh.org.uk/site/articles/guillotine-knitting-terror/">counter-revolutionary propaganda</a> in the 1790s and 1800s also helped popularise the idea that aristocrats were martyrs and the main victims of revolution executioners.</p>
<p>This representation was mostly forged via the abundant publication in the 19th century of memoirs and diaries of <a href="https://parcoursrevolution.paris.fr/en/points-of-interest/79-picpus-a-commemorative-site-of-the-terror">survivors and relatives</a> of victims, usually from the social and economic elite fiercely opposed to the Revolution and its legacy.</p>
<h2>A broader legacy</h2>
<p>Beyond the guillotine and the Reign of Terror, the legacies of the revolution run far deeper. </p>
<p>The revolution abolished entrenched privileges based on birth, imposed equality before the law and opened the door to emerging forms of democratic involvement for everyday citizens.</p>
<p>The Revolution ushered in a time of reforms in France, across Europe and indeed across the world.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/200455/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
A series of laws voted up in late 1793 enabled the expedited judgement of thousands of people suspected of counterrevolutionary beliefs.
Claire Rioult, PhD candidate in Early Modern History, Monash University
Romain Fathi, Senior Lecturer, History, Flinders University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/204770
2023-05-10T12:29:08Z
2023-05-10T12:29:08Z
On its 75th birthday, Israel still can’t agree on what it means to be a Jewish state and a democracy
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/525208/original/file-20230509-27-4vwc7n.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=9%2C0%2C6050%2C3431&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Under a portrait of Theodor Herzl, David Ben-Gurion on May 14, 1948, declares the establishment of a Jewish state to be known as the state of Israel.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/the-israeli-declaration-of-independence-proclaimed-on-14-news-photo/944222584?adppopup=true">Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>As Israel celebrates the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/israel-protests-flag-netanyahu-overhaul-354a807daa5c901823a99419ce1eb638">75th anniversary of its founding</a>, and nearly a century and a half after the <a href="https://uwpress.wisc.edu/books/3946.htm">first Zionists came to Palestine from Europe</a>, the core tension behind the country’s establishment – whether a Jewish state could be a democratic state, whether Zionism could accommodate pluralism – is more obvious than ever.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.globalfirepower.com/country-military-strength-detail.php?country_id=israel">Israel today is a military powerhouse</a> and one of 38 members of the influential <a href="https://www.state.gov/the-organization-for-economic-co-operation-and-development-oecd/">Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development</a>, formed in 1961 to promote cooperation among democratic, free-market-oriented governments. </p>
<p>Such strength and economic viability would be unfamiliar to the Jews whose identity was forged in the <a href="https://link.springer.com/10.1007/978-0-387-29904-4_17">European diaspora</a>. There, Judaism and its practitioners shunned political and military power. They saw themselves as a minority facing discrimination, persecution and violence. Power was the domain of gentiles. </p>
<p>Jews, often <a href="https://pluralism.org/diaspora-community">separated from the non-Jewish world</a>, focused instead on developing social institutions to help the poor and weak, not asserting their will as a political community.</p>
<p>This attitude toward the state and politics began to change for Europe’s Jews in the <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/1486474">aftermath of the French Revolution</a>, when the majority of Jews lived in Europe, especially central and Eastern Europe. As some of the traditional legal and political barriers that kept Jews outside of mainstream society began to crumble, Jews began to integrate into broader society and culture.</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/525358/original/file-20230510-15-ucshcc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/525358/original/file-20230510-15-ucshcc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/525358/original/file-20230510-15-ucshcc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/525358/original/file-20230510-15-ucshcc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/525358/original/file-20230510-15-ucshcc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/525358/original/file-20230510-15-ucshcc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/525358/original/file-20230510-15-ucshcc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/topics/israel-1948-138054">Expert analysis</a> of the birth of the state of Israel and the plight of the Palestinian people.</em></p>
<hr>
<p>This process also brought about, for some Jews, <a href="https://www.brandeis.edu/now/2011/september/polonskyexcerpt.html">new attitudes toward their Jewish identity</a>.</p>
<p>Many no longer defined themselves as members of a religious community. As many other <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/43852/summary">groups had begun to do in Europe</a>, they saw themselves as belonging to a national community. For some, nationalism also offered a way out of the predicament that Jews faced in Europe: hatred and discrimination, which came to be known as antisemitism.</p>
<p>This <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Zionism">nationalism was called Zionism</a>. And the thinking went that if the Jews are a nation, then they should have their own nation-state, <a href="https://www.fpri.org/article/2015/01/origins-and-evolution-of-zionism/">preferably in Palestine</a>, the Jews’ ancestral homeland. There they could assume control of their historical destiny, not to be at the mercy of non-Jewish nations and rulers.</p>
<p>Zionism sought to solve a particular Jewish problem, gathering Jews dispersed around the world, ending the unique Jewish historical experience of centuries of life under the rule of often hostile governments, and universalizing the Jewish experience by creating a Jewish state and society like all other nations. It was the “natural right of the Jewish people to be <a href="https://main.knesset.gov.il/en/about/pages/declaration.aspx">masters of their own fate</a>, like all other nations, in their own sovereign State,” said Israel’s declaration of independence. </p>
<p>But just how universal would a Jewish state be? Could such a nation be both Jewish and democratic?</p>
<p>That is the central question that, more than a century later, has yet to be answered clearly and affirmatively.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/525212/original/file-20230509-19-q9oiaa.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A clipping from the London-based Jewish Chronicle by Zionist Theodor Herzl, saying the founding of a Jewish state is the 'solution of the Jewish question.'" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/525212/original/file-20230509-19-q9oiaa.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/525212/original/file-20230509-19-q9oiaa.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=440&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/525212/original/file-20230509-19-q9oiaa.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=440&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/525212/original/file-20230509-19-q9oiaa.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=440&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/525212/original/file-20230509-19-q9oiaa.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=553&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/525212/original/file-20230509-19-q9oiaa.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=553&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/525212/original/file-20230509-19-q9oiaa.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=553&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An article by Zionist Theodor Herzl for the London-based Jewish Chronicle, Jan. 17, 1896.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:JewishChronicle1896.jpg">Wikipedia</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Reconciling universal and particular</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Theodor-Herzl">Theodor Herzl</a>, an Austro-Hungarian Jew acknowledged as the father of modern Zionism, considered this tension in his 1902 utopian novel “<a href="https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/quot-altneuland-quot-theodor-herzl">Altneuland,” or “The Old New Land</a>.” Herzl tried to envision what a future Jewish society in Palestine would look like.</p>
<p>One of the novel’s key plot lines involves a political campaign pitting a xenophobic rabbi who preaches the Jewish character of the community against a secular candidate who advocates inclusivity and cooperation between Jews and Arabs in this imagined Jewish society.</p>
<p>Herzl’s choice: the pluralist candidate prevailed.</p>
<p>But throughout the history of the Zionist movement and the state of Israel, what Herzl described has been a core source of tension. This duality was on full display in <a href="https://main.knesset.gov.il/en/about/pages/declaration.aspx">Israel’s declaration of independence</a>, in many ways the quintessential manifestation of political Zionism.</p>
<p>On the one hand, the document offers a version of Jewish history that emphasizes the uniqueness of the Jewish experience and offers historical justification for the creation of a safe haven for the Jews. </p>
<p>After establishing the attachment of the Jews to their ancestral homeland, the authors of the declaration address the Holocaust, writing that, “the massacre of millions of Jews in Europe … was another clear demonstration of the urgency of solving the problem” of Jewish “homelessness” by “re-establishing” the Jewish state, which would “open the gates of the homeland wide to every Jew.”</p>
<p>At the same time, <a href="https://main.knesset.gov.il/en/about/pages/declaration.aspx">the document pledges</a> that the state of Israel would be faithful to the U.N. charter, protecting the rights of all minorities: “The State … will be based on freedom, justice and peace as envisaged by the prophets of Israel; it will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex.”</p>
<p>David Ben-Gurion, Israel’s first prime minister, suggested that once the country was created, Zionism would wither away. The nation, as a Jewish state with laws that protect minorities, <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/41805141">would resolve the contradictions inherent in Zionist ideology</a>.</p>
<p>But as long as the majority of Israelis felt a sense of existential threat – <a href="https://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/document.php?id=cqresrre1952102300">both from neighboring Arab states</a> and <a href="https://eh.net/encyclopedia/a-brief-economic-history-of-modern-israel/">dire economic conditions</a> – Zionism continued to provide a unifying ideological umbrella to most Israelis.</p>
<h2>After 1967, a transformation</h2>
<p>In the aftermath of <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-39960461">the 1967 Six-Day War</a>, when Israel conquered the Sinai Peninsula from Egypt, the West Bank from Jordan and the Golan Heights from Syria, the country emerged as a <a href="https://www.wilsoncenter.org/publication/the-1967-six-day-war">regional military and economic power</a>. </p>
<p>It was a time of significant social, political and economic change.</p>
<p>A growing number of Israelis – especially those from the more secular, upper classes – <a href="https://en.idi.org.il/articles/15731">began to question</a> the country’s particularism, which conceived of the country as a shelter for Jews that would protect them from external threats. For these upwardly mobile Israelis, known <a href="https://sunypress.edu/Books/B/Beyond-Post-Zionism">as the post-Zionists</a>, the founding myths of a vulnerable young state no longer seemed relevant. </p>
<p>They wanted Israel to become a fully normal part of the American-led global order. They believed the country should integrate into the region by <a href="https://www.csis.org/analysis/israels-rightward-shift">resolving the conflict between Jews and Arabs</a>. And they wanted to participate in the global economic market as the country transitioned from a state-run economy to the free market.</p>
<p>At the same time, religious Jews and poorer Israelis, mostly descended from Jewish communities of the Arab Middle East and North Africa, resisted this cosmopolitan liberal shift. They held tightly to their Jewish identity, rejecting what they saw as compromises driven by alien ideals like democracy and pluralism. To this group, <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/2009-06-05/ty-article/neo-zionism-101/0000017f-f454-d223-a97f-fdddf95b0000">known as neo-Zionists</a>, the ideal was a Jewish state as protection from the rapid changes engulfing the country.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/525215/original/file-20230509-17-msfdbh.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Men lying down on the ground with their hands behind their heads, overseen by armed soldiers." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/525215/original/file-20230509-17-msfdbh.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/525215/original/file-20230509-17-msfdbh.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=441&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/525215/original/file-20230509-17-msfdbh.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=441&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/525215/original/file-20230509-17-msfdbh.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=441&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/525215/original/file-20230509-17-msfdbh.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=554&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/525215/original/file-20230509-17-msfdbh.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=554&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/525215/original/file-20230509-17-msfdbh.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=554&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Palestinians surrender to Israeli soldiers in June 1967 in the occupied territory of the West Bank, during what is known as the Six-Day War.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/palestinians-surrender-to-israeli-soldiers-in-june-1967-in-news-photo/51347132?adppopup=true">Pierre Guillaud/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Palestinian question disappears</h2>
<p>From the 1970s through 2000, much of the post-or-neo-Zionist divide was over the occupation of the West Bank, <a href="https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/west-bank/">where 3 million Palestinians live</a>. Could there be peace between Israelis and Palestinians? </p>
<p><a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/40209614">Post-Zionists wanted peace</a>, seeking a two-state solution that would see a Palestinian state next to Israel. <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/2009-06-05/ty-article/neo-zionism-101/0000017f-f454-d223-a97f-fdddf95b0000">Neo-Zionists rejected any territorial compromise</a> with the Palestinians.</p>
<p>In the 21st century, in the aftermath of <a href="https://users.ox.ac.uk/%7Essfc0005/The%20Rise%20and%20Fall%20of%20the%20Oslo%20Peace%20Process.html#:%7E:text=Why%20did%20the%20Oslo%20peace,between%20Israel%20and%20the%20Palestinians.">the peace process collapse</a> and <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Israel/The-second-intifada">the second intifada</a>, or Palestinian uprising, the Palestinian issue has virtually disappeared from Israel’s political landscape.</p>
<p>Instead, the country’s attention has <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/07/world/middleeast/israel-divisions-judicial-overhaul.html?utm_source=Iterable&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=ForwardingtheNews_6535443">returned to the old divisions</a> between those advocating policies that would <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2016/03/08/views-of-the-jewish-state-and-the-diaspora/">enhance the Jewish character of the country</a> and those who champion universal policies more favorable to excluded minorities.</p>
<p>The Israeli government that came into power in late 2022 represents the <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-stunning-political-comeback-for-israels-netanyahu-may-give-way-to-governing-nightmare-ahead-193892">nationalistic, particular camp most forcefully</a>. Its main agenda has been a plan <a href="https://theconversation.com/israels-netanyahu-facing-off-against-the-supreme-court-and-proposing-to-limit-judicial-independence-and-3-other-threats-to-israeli-democracy-197096">to diminish and restrict the Israeli Supreme Court’s powers</a>. To the ruling coalition, the court has been <a href="https://theconversation.com/israel-enters-a-dangerous-period-public-protests-swell-over-netanyahus-plan-to-limit-the-power-of-the-israeli-supreme-court-199917">a hindrance in pursuing policies</a> advancing the country’s Jewish nature.</p>
<p>This so-called reform has driven <a href="https://theconversation.com/israel-enters-a-dangerous-period-public-protests-swell-over-netanyahus-plan-to-limit-the-power-of-the-israeli-supreme-court-199917">hundreds of thousands of protesters to the streets</a>. Their demand is a simple one: democracy.</p>
<p>Israel may no longer be a fledgling state – but it has yet to overcome the basic contradiction that has defined it from the very beginning: Can it be Jewish and democratic?</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/204770/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Eran Kaplan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Israel may no longer be a fledgling state – but it has yet to overcome the basic contradiction that has defined it from the very beginning.
Eran Kaplan, Rhoda and Richard Goldman Chair in Jewish Studies, San Francisco State University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/197203
2023-01-10T17:15:46Z
2023-01-10T17:15:46Z
Richard Price: how one of the 18th century’s most influential thinkers was forgotten
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503384/original/file-20230106-23-db9yxn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=2%2C2%2C1914%2C1069&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Richard Price reading a letter dated 1784 from his friend, Benjamin Franklin.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Benjamin West, National Library of Wales & Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>According to the eulogies and <a href="https://archive.org/details/sim_gentlemans-magazine_1791-04_61_4/page/388/mode/2up?q=price">obituaries</a> written at the time of his death in 1791, <a href="https://richardpricesociety.org.uk/">Richard Price’s</a> name would be remembered alongside figures such as Benjamin Franklin, John Locke, George Washington and Thomas Paine. </p>
<p>Three hundred years on from his birth in the village of Llangeinor, near Bridgend in south Wales, why has he therefore been lost from our popular memory? </p>
<p>After all, here was a polymath whose lasting contributions ranged across a number of disciplines, including moral philosophy, <a href="https://rss.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1740-9713.2013.00638.x">mathematics</a> and theology. Moreover, Price’s contribution as a public intellectual made a huge impact, not least in international politics. </p>
<p>A useful starting point are the parallels with his friend <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/womens-blog/2015/oct/05/original-suffragette-mary-wollstonecraft?CMP=share_btn_link">Mary Wollstonecraft</a>. She was a philosopher, a women’s rights advocate and the mother of <a href="https://www.bl.uk/people/mary-shelley">Mary Shelley</a>. </p>
<p>Wollstonecraft was both inspired by Price and indebted to him. Indeed, her most influential texts are directly linked to Price and the pamphlet war known as the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revolution_Controversy">Revolution controversy</a>. </p>
<p>In these texts, influential thinkers discussed the political issues arising from the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/French-Revolution">French Revolution</a>. It has subsequently been recognised as a <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/26213839">formative debate in terms of modern political ideas. </a></p>
<p>It was Price who sparked the controversy with a sermon in 1789 entitled <a href="https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/A_Discourse_on_the_Love_of_Our_Country/92QNAAAAIAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&printsec=frontcover">A Discourse on the Love of Our Country</a>, in which he supported the opening events of the revolution in France. </p>
<p>He declared it to be a continuation of the spreading of enlightened values and ideas introduced by the <a href="https://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/evolutionofparliament/parliamentaryauthority/revolution/">Glorious Revolution of 1688</a> in England. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/XHjtIO0ZFs4?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Richard Price’s sermon to the Revolution Society in 1789.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This provoked a response from the philosopher and Anglo-Irish Whig MP <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Edmund-Burke-British-philosopher-and-statesman">Edmund Burke</a>, with his famous text, <a href="https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/reflections-on-the-revolution-in-france-by-edmund-burke">Reflections on the Revolution in France</a>. </p>
<p>This is regarded as a formative text of modern conservative thought. It defended the importance of the traditional institutions of state and society while warning of the excesses of revolution. </p>
<p>In response, Wollstonecraft published <a href="https://oll.libertyfund.org/title/wollstonecraft-a-vindication-of-the-rights-of-men">A Vindication of the Rights of Men</a> in 1790. It was both a critique of Burke and a defence of Price, who died a year later. </p>
<p>Then in 1792, she wrote her profoundly influential <a href="https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/mary-wollstonecraft-a-vindication-of-the-rights-of-woman">A Vindication of the Rights of Woman</a>, explicitly extending dissenting ideals to women, with a searing social critique. </p>
<p>Both Price and Wollstonecraft would subsequently be written out of history. </p>
<p>Price’s biographer, <a href="https://www.uwp.co.uk/author/Paul-Frame-663/">Paul Frame</a>, suggests this can be partly accounted for by events in France and the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Reign-of-Terror">violent turn to terror during the French Revolution</a>. </p>
<p>As a result, <a href="https://www.uwp.co.uk/book/libertys-apostle-richard-price-his-life-and-times/">Frame suggests</a> Burke was “the man who had accurately predicted the direction of the Revolution”. This “undermined the more optimistic faith in rationalism and natural rights” of Price and others. </p>
<p>They both also suffered in terms of their personal reputation. Price became a caricature of the picture painted by Burke, captured in the cartoons of the day. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Satirical cartoon of Richard Price at his writing desk overlooked by a large nose and eyes surrounded by haze representing Edmund Burke, carrying a crown, a cross and a copy of his pamphlet." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503100/original/file-20230104-70338-pvtb8n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503100/original/file-20230104-70338-pvtb8n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=427&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503100/original/file-20230104-70338-pvtb8n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=427&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503100/original/file-20230104-70338-pvtb8n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=427&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503100/original/file-20230104-70338-pvtb8n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=537&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503100/original/file-20230104-70338-pvtb8n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=537&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503100/original/file-20230104-70338-pvtb8n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=537&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A caricature of Richard Price with a vision of Edmund Burke looking over his shoulder, by James Gillray.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Library of Congress</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Wollstonecraft was posthumously <a href="https://lithub.com/how-a-husbands-loving-biography-ruined-his-wifes-reputation/">undone by the candid biography of her widower</a>, its contents deployed maliciously by those who sought to undermine her. Thankfully, <a href="https://theconversation.com/mary-wollstonecraft-statue-a-provocative-tribute-for-a-radical-woman-149888">her works and good name were recovered by the feminist movement</a>. </p>
<p>As Frame suggests however, there were deeper, structural factors at play. </p>
<p>Price was the embodiment of a reformism the British establishment had a material interest in thwarting. He represented a dissenting community whose <a href="https://welshchapels.wales/nonconformity/">nonconformist Christian denominations</a> were in opposition to the established church and discriminated against. </p>
<p>Price spoke out against the crown, slavery and chauvinistic nationalism. He advocated equality, democratic principles and civic nationalism. </p>
<p>The hostility towards the progressive forces he embodied was symbolised by the <a href="https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803100452318;jsessionid=7677A3EB1D19321A218678801F2EDCD1">Seditious Meetings Act</a> introduced in 1795 to stifle the reform movement. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="An illustration from 1790 showing three men speaking from a church pulpit to a group of others reading and tearing up documents." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503390/original/file-20230106-6729-mq16ci.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503390/original/file-20230106-6729-mq16ci.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=841&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503390/original/file-20230106-6729-mq16ci.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=841&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503390/original/file-20230106-6729-mq16ci.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=841&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503390/original/file-20230106-6729-mq16ci.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1056&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503390/original/file-20230106-6729-mq16ci.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1056&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503390/original/file-20230106-6729-mq16ci.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1056&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Richard Price, Joseph Priestley and Theophilus Lindsay in a 1790 engraving satirising the campaign to have the Test Act repealed.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">James Sayers</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>There would have been very real consequences had it been Price and his ilk – and not Burke – who were lionised as the spirit of Britain (a state less than a century old at the time). Arguably, we still live with the ramifications today. </p>
<p>Price’s politics eventually had their day as the social tumult of the 19th century meant the tide of reform could not be stemmed. </p>
<p>Burke’s conservatism, however, conceivably still symbolises where the balance of power sits in terms of the UK’s political culture. The Tory party is often <a href="https://go.gale.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA271975015&sid=googleScholar&v=2.1&it=r&linkaccess=abs&issn=15555623&p=AONE&sw=w&userGroupName=anon%7E26847d25">still regarded as the natural party of power</a>, and deference towards the ruling classes remains. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A memorial stone dedicated to Richard Price in Newington Green Unitarian Church" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503386/original/file-20230106-24-s9fgwp.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503386/original/file-20230106-24-s9fgwp.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503386/original/file-20230106-24-s9fgwp.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503386/original/file-20230106-24-s9fgwp.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503386/original/file-20230106-24-s9fgwp.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503386/original/file-20230106-24-s9fgwp.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503386/original/file-20230106-24-s9fgwp.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Memorial to Richard Price in Newington Green Unitarian Church in North London.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jonathan Cardy</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Given the collective amnesia towards him within Britain, it is perhaps apt that celebrations of Price’s life and works should begin this month with a talk at <a href="https://www.amphilsoc.org/events/electrifying-thinkers">the American Philosophical Association</a> in Philadelphia. </p>
<p>There will, however, be <a href="https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100089200358334">a programme of events at home</a> to reflect on his contribution and contemporary relevance. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1599865290761785344"}"></div></p>
<p>This will include a birthday celebration in Llangeinor, an academic conference, and <a href="https://contemporancient.org/">a play</a>. </p>
<p>If he has not been celebrated by a British culture, for which he had such high hopes, then it is high time it happened in Wales, at the very least.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/197203/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Huw L Williams works for Cardiff University who are a lead partner in the 'Price 300' project celebrating Richard Price's tercentenary in 2023. His work as a philosopher is part-funded by the Coleg Cymraeg Cenedlaethol, a government-funded body responsible for promoting academic activity and teaching through the medium of Welsh. He is the President of the Adran Athroniaeth Cymdeithas Cynfyfyrwyr Prifysgol Cymru that promotes philosophy through the medium of Welsh and Welsh-language philosophy.</span></em></p>
He was an important philosopher, mathematician and social reformer of his time. But Richard Price was subsequently written out of history.
Huw L Williams, Reader in Political Philosophy, Cardiff University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/193683
2022-11-16T20:59:25Z
2022-11-16T20:59:25Z
Note to Québec’s premier: French is the language of human rights, not xenophobia
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/495121/original/file-20221114-26-hnnlp7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=109%2C117%2C5375%2C2666&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">‘Lamartine rejects the red flag in front of the town hall,’ a painting by Henri Félix Philippoteaux (1815–1884), captures a seminal moment in the second French Revolution in Paris in 1848, when revolutionaries demanded human and civil rights.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Les Musées de la ville de Paris)</span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/note-to-quebec-s-premier--french-is-the-language-of-human-rights--not-xenophobia" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>Faced with the new <a href="https://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/index-eng.cfm">census data</a> that 23 per cent of Canadians are immigrants, Québec Premier François Legault recently warned the province remains determined to find a balance between welcoming newcomers and <a href="https://www.instagram.com/reel/CkQyxr7AczC/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link">fighting the decline of the French language</a>. </p>
<p>As a researcher in French literature and political theory, I believe Legault’s thinking is misguided. French isn’t a language of provincialism. Authors like <a href="https://www.famousauthors.org/victor-hugo">Victor Hugo</a>, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/George-Sand">George Sand</a> and <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Alphonse-de-Lamartine">Alphonse de Lamartine</a> — all of them studied as part of <a href="http://www.education.gouv.qc.ca/fileadmin/site_web/documents/PFEQ/qepsecfirstcycle.pdf">Québec’s core curriculum</a> — championed universalism, not xenophobia. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/495123/original/file-20221114-12-eoqfpd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="An oval portrait of a dark-haired woman with flowers in her hair." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/495123/original/file-20221114-12-eoqfpd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/495123/original/file-20221114-12-eoqfpd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=801&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495123/original/file-20221114-12-eoqfpd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=801&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495123/original/file-20221114-12-eoqfpd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=801&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495123/original/file-20221114-12-eoqfpd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1007&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495123/original/file-20221114-12-eoqfpd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1007&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495123/original/file-20221114-12-eoqfpd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1007&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A portrait of George Sand (1804-1876). Her name was the pseudonym of Amantine Aurore Lucile Dupin de Francueil, a novelist, playwright, French literary critic and journalist.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Musées de la ville de Paris)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>There have been two French revolutions: <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/French-Revolution/Events-of-1789">in 1789</a>, when freedom and national sovereignty occupied popular imagination, and the lesser known uprising <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Revolutions-of-1848">in 1848,</a> when justice and human solidarity rose to the fore. French owes its modern, democratic form to the heroes of that second revolution. </p>
<p>The first triumphs of early 1848 — the ousting of the supposedly bourgeois monarch, Louis-Philippe, and the proclamation of the Second Republic — captivated French-Canadians, both young and old. Politician Louis-Joseph Papineau, leader of <a href="https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/patriotes">Lower Canada’s Patriote party</a>, saluted <a href="https://numerique.banq.qc.ca/patrimoine/details/52327/3589842">the “truths” being preached</a> across the Atlantic, and <a href="https://numerique.banq.qc.ca/patrimoine/details/52327/3456427">100 young people gathered</a> in a Montréal hotel shouting: “Liberty, equality, fraternity!”</p>
<p>In 1848, <a href="https://www.revuedesdeuxmondes.fr/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/6fa84cc0a4a2f233b2ec6dfe72668138.pdf">Sand wrote</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“I dream of an ideal fraternity, and I believe I would cease to live the day I do not wish it for humanity.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The inclusive nature of her political ideal signified a shift in discourse on human rights since the first French Revolution in 1789. It soon transcended national borders. Canadians from various ancestries <a href="https://numerique.banq.qc.ca/patrimoine/details/52327/3589824?docsearchtext=L%27Aurore,%2031%20mars%201848.">celebrated the events in Paris</a> where one heard “Long live Italy!” and “Long live Ireland!” <a href="https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/mod/1848lamartine.asp">simultaneously with the French national anthem</a>. </p>
<h2>First ‘red scare’</h2>
<p>But the French and those abroad were divided on just how radical the second revolution ought to be. This was Canada’s first red scare, almost 100 years before the <a href="https://cha-shc.ca/_uploads/5c38afba549c7.pdf">Cold War-era aversion to communism that was prevalent in North America</a>. </p>
<p>The fierce advocates of the French working class — Sand, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Alexandre-Auguste-Ledru-Rollin">Alexandre Ledru-Rollin</a> and <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Louis-Blanc">Louis Blanc</a> among them — clashed with moderates like de Lamartine.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="A black-and-white photo of a man in a suit with grey hair." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/495125/original/file-20221114-25-7zo5hs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/495125/original/file-20221114-25-7zo5hs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=967&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495125/original/file-20221114-25-7zo5hs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=967&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495125/original/file-20221114-25-7zo5hs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=967&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495125/original/file-20221114-25-7zo5hs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1216&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495125/original/file-20221114-25-7zo5hs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1216&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495125/original/file-20221114-25-7zo5hs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1216&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Louis-Joseph Papineau is seen in this 1852 photo.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(National Archives of Canada)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>“M. Papineau is the Ledru-Rollin of Canada,” a Montréal-based newspaper <a href="https://numerique.banq.qc.ca/patrimoine/details/52327/4129457">proclaimed in May 1848</a> after praising Lamartine’s promises to the bourgeoisie. </p>
<p>The second French Revolution turned bleak after a three-day insurrection in <a href="https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/june-days-rebellion">June 1848</a>, when more than 4,000 French workers died and 15,000 were arrested. While most Canadian newspapers blamed the bloodshed on communist ideology and <a href="https://open.library.ubc.ca/media/stream/pdf/24/1.0068057/1">preached a moderate stance aligned with British conservatism</a>, one journalist reflected how Canadian youth still “cried with all those who suffered.”</p>
<p>What about today’s Québec conservatism? </p>
<p>Legault’s use of the French language as a tool to limit immigration is a historical inversion. </p>
<p>The Montréal youths shouting “Liberty, equality, fraternity!” in 1848 wanted to open doors to the world, not close them. They understood freedom as only one component of human rights: justice and solidarity became necessary complements <a href="http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/142/degrees-of-violence-in-the-french-revolution">following the violence</a> of the 1789 revolution.</p>
<h2>Historically ignorant</h2>
<p>In 1849, writing from exile like Hugo, Blanc reminded the French that his seemingly novel socialist ideas <a href="http://www.mediterranee-antique.fr/Auteurs/Fichiers/ABC/Blanc/R_1848/T2/R_48_2_A18.htm">repeated an old Christian motto</a>: “The first must be the servant of the last.”</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/495127/original/file-20221114-21-bnsyk1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A black and white photo of a dark-haired man with his arms crossed." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/495127/original/file-20221114-21-bnsyk1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/495127/original/file-20221114-21-bnsyk1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=753&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495127/original/file-20221114-21-bnsyk1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=753&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495127/original/file-20221114-21-bnsyk1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=753&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495127/original/file-20221114-21-bnsyk1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=946&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495127/original/file-20221114-21-bnsyk1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=946&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495127/original/file-20221114-21-bnsyk1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=946&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Louis Blanc, who was a member of the French government during the 1848 French Revolution, is seen in this undated portrait.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Musées de la ville de Paris)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The Québec government does not need to be “a servant of the last” if, as it alleges, the French language is no longer first in line. But its use of the language as an excuse for xenophobia is historically ignorant. </p>
<p>Despite my personal love of the French language, I see no value in students having to watch <a href="https://montrealgazette.com/entertainment/arts/kevin-tierney-quebec-movies-have-a-dubbing-problem">more movies dubbed in French</a> or being required to take <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/bill-96-explained-1.6460764">additional French courses at Québec’s publicly funded colleges</a>. </p>
<p>Legault is failing to understand that French has been the language of human rights for hundreds of years. He’s failing to capitalize on the fact that Canadian youth, outraged by global indifference to ongoing existential crises and showing solidarity to international protest movements, could be drawn to French, not English, for that very reason.</p>
<p>In the history of the anglophone media, it’s difficult to find an equivalent to French novelist Emile Zola’s <a href="https://www.lemanuscritfrancais.com/fr/manuscrit/affaire-dreyfus-emile-zola-laurore-du-13-janvier-1898/">trail-blazing “J’accuse!” op-ed</a> published in <em>L'Aurore</em> that railed against antisemitism, nor a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/fh/crac031">revolution where poets became politicians overnight</a>. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/reading-french-literature-in-a-time-of-terror-63036">Reading French literature in a time of terror</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>French authors have historically led the world in issuing eloquent and genuine calls for justice. To read Hugo or Sand is to discover new hemispheres in the human heart.</p>
<p>To return the French language to its rightful place as the voice of human rights, the Québec government must promote it as a tool of a human rights-based civic education, not a mandatory language. Welcoming immigrants would subsequently not be an obstacle to the French language or francophone culture — it would be a benefit.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/193683/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rayyan Dabbous does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
French has historically been a language of human rights. That’s why the Québec government should promote it as a tool of a human rights-based civic education, not force it on newcomers.
Rayyan Dabbous, PhD Candidate, Center for Comparative Literature, University of Toronto
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/186745
2022-08-30T03:39:05Z
2022-08-30T03:39:05Z
Jacques-Louis David’s The Lictors Bringing to Brutus the Bodies of his Dead Sons is a gruesome and compelling painting
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/481687/original/file-20220830-8654-mxmnmi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=7%2C0%2C5268%2C4040&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Jacques-Louis David, The Lictors bringing to Brutus the bodies of his dead sons, 1789 Paris, Louvre.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Musée du Louvre</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>In this new series, our writers introduce us to a favourite painting.</em></p>
<hr>
<p>How can anyone love this dark and gruesome painting? </p>
<p>We’re a long way from Monet, Van Gogh and the perennial favourites of museum visitors. </p>
<p>Jacques-Louis David’s The Lictors Bringing to Brutus the Bodies of his Dead Sons is a <a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/h/history-painting">history painting</a>: a kind of art that attempts to give visual life to stories from history, religion and myth. This genre was regarded for centuries as the pinnacle of artistic achievement. </p>
<p>These days, many epic stories have faded from cultural memory and eyes used to modern art and the moving image can see history painting as dull, stilted dress-up.</p>
<p>But let’s not speed past the painting. Take a moment to dwell on its strange and compelling beauty. </p>
<h2>Painting history</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.nga.gov/collection/artist-info.1212.html">Jacques-Louis David</a> (1748-1825) was a leader among the painters of a generation enthused by the revival of interest in ancient histories, cultures and art we now call <a href="https://mymodernmet.com/what-is-neoclassicism/">neo-classicism</a>. </p>
<p>After a rocky start, and a life-changing stay in Rome, David made his reputation with spectacular paintings derived from ancient history, shown at the <a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/s/salon">Salon</a> – the enormously popular public exhibitions of contemporary art held every two years in the Louvre palace. </p>
<p>These works included the <a href="https://collections.louvre.fr/en/ark:/53355/cl010062239">Oath of the Horatii</a>, which <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8365.1978.tb00027.x">caused a sensation in 1785</a> and the equally remarkable <a href="https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/436105">Death of Socrates</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/480031/original/file-20220819-26-xux47o.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/480031/original/file-20220819-26-xux47o.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/480031/original/file-20220819-26-xux47o.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480031/original/file-20220819-26-xux47o.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480031/original/file-20220819-26-xux47o.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480031/original/file-20220819-26-xux47o.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480031/original/file-20220819-26-xux47o.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480031/original/file-20220819-26-xux47o.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Jacques-Louis David, The Death of Socrates, 1787.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Metropolitan Museum of Art</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>He painted The Lictors Bringing to Brutus the Bodies of his Dead Sons over the course of two years, before it premiered at the Salon in 1789.</p>
<p>It was first seen six weeks after the storming of the Bastille. The exhibition closed on October 6, the same day a <a href="https://omny.fm/shows/stuff-you-missed-in-history-class/the-womens-march-on-versailles">revolutionary crowd spearheaded by Parisian women</a> extracted Louis XVI and his family from the Versailles and placed them under house arrest in the Tuileries palace.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-bastille-day-and-why-is-it-celebrated-163812">What is Bastille Day and why is it celebrated?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>An unorthodox composition</h2>
<p>The Brutus depicts a terrible moment in the life of the (perhaps legendary) founder of the Roman republic <a href="https://www.livius.org/articles/person/junius-brutus-lucius/">Lucius Junius Brutus</a> who, after the brutalisation of his own family and the rape of Lucretia, led the successful revolt that ended the reign of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucius_Tarquinius_Superbus">Tarquinius Superbus</a> and founded the Roman republic. </p>
<p>After this coup, the exiled Tarquins attempted a counter-revolution. Brutus’s sons and his wife’s brothers were involved in this plot. </p>
<p>Uncovering their treason, Brutus was forced to follow his own anti-treason decree and presided over the judgement and execution of his sons. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/480032/original/file-20220819-14-jwbapt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/480032/original/file-20220819-14-jwbapt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/480032/original/file-20220819-14-jwbapt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=939&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480032/original/file-20220819-14-jwbapt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=939&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480032/original/file-20220819-14-jwbapt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=939&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480032/original/file-20220819-14-jwbapt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1180&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480032/original/file-20220819-14-jwbapt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1180&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480032/original/file-20220819-14-jwbapt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1180&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Notice the curled toes, and the tension in the gripping hand.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Musée du Louvre</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>David chose not to show the execution itself, described in <a href="http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0026%3Abook%3D2%3Achapter%3D5">Livy</a> and <a href="https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Lives/Publicola*.html#6">Plutarch</a>. Instead he imagined the moment when the lictors – the physical executioners and the bodyguards of the Republic – return the bodies to Brutus’ household for burial.</p>
<p>At the left of the 14-square-metre canvas, we see the tense, numb Brutus seated, uncomfortably, in the shadow of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roma_(mythology)">Goddess Roma</a>. </p>
<p>His facial expression is inscrutable, but his clenched feet, toes and right hand, clutching his anti-treason decree, betray his tension and pain. The corpses and the weight of history, office and the law seem to impose on him a heavy bodily and psychic burden.</p>
<p>The centre, where we might typically find the main actor of the scene, is occupied by furniture, a sewing basket and empty space. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/480033/original/file-20220819-24-z5ca7f.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/480033/original/file-20220819-24-z5ca7f.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/480033/original/file-20220819-24-z5ca7f.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=411&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480033/original/file-20220819-24-z5ca7f.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=411&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480033/original/file-20220819-24-z5ca7f.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=411&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480033/original/file-20220819-24-z5ca7f.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=517&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480033/original/file-20220819-24-z5ca7f.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=517&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480033/original/file-20220819-24-z5ca7f.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=517&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">At the centre of the painting is a simple still life.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Musée du Louvre</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This central still life is as powerful as it is unexpected. </p>
<p>The empty chair is a brilliant metaphor for the disruptions, absences and family disintegration brought about by Brutus’ submission to his own law. </p>
<p>The sewing basket, a bold and beautifully painted detail, seems banal and domestic, but the pin and thread, the ball and the scissors recall in miniature the scourging and execution of the sons.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/480034/original/file-20220819-13-z1td8j.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/480034/original/file-20220819-13-z1td8j.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/480034/original/file-20220819-13-z1td8j.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=716&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480034/original/file-20220819-13-z1td8j.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=716&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480034/original/file-20220819-13-z1td8j.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=716&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480034/original/file-20220819-13-z1td8j.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=899&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480034/original/file-20220819-13-z1td8j.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=899&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480034/original/file-20220819-13-z1td8j.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=899&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The mother is defiant; the daughters slumped in grief.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Musée du Louvre</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>To the right of this, brightly lit, is the maternal group. </p>
<p>The statuesque, shocked but defiant mother is the most active of all the figures. She makes eye contact with one of the executioners and past him to the corpses. </p>
<p>Her daughters collapse in grief, seeking shelter from the presence of death.</p>
<p>At the right edge of the painting sits another figure, a veiled servant, whose face David hides, perhaps echoing Timanthes’ depiction of the <a href="http://www.hellenicaworld.com/Greece/Art/Ancient/en/TimanthesIphigenia.html">grieving Agamemnon</a>. Her tense muscles and veins hint at grief and despair. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/480035/original/file-20220819-23-12veju.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/480035/original/file-20220819-23-12veju.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=437&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480035/original/file-20220819-23-12veju.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=437&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480035/original/file-20220819-23-12veju.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=437&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480035/original/file-20220819-23-12veju.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=550&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480035/original/file-20220819-23-12veju.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=550&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480035/original/file-20220819-23-12veju.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=550&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Her face hidden, the servant distils inexpressible grief.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Musée du Louvre</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Pointing to the future</h2>
<p>This unorthodox compositional strategy – the gaps, reversals and displacements, nuanced, sublimated emotions, the disjointed and scattered nature of its participants – gives the painting its power. </p>
<p>But notice, too, the strange beauty of David’s rough stone floors, polished and incised wood surfaces and tensely folded fabrics, all heavy with the weight of loss and uncertainty of the future. </p>
<p>That uncertain future happened to be unfolding right around the display of the painting in Paris at the beginning of the French Revolution. </p>
<p>In this context, Brutus took on unexpected new meanings: virtue and sacrifice; the violence and courage needed to overthrow tyrannical kings and maintain liberty; vigilance, loyalty, treason and death.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/481688/original/file-20220830-19222-ybhfab.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/481688/original/file-20220830-19222-ybhfab.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/481688/original/file-20220830-19222-ybhfab.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=772&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481688/original/file-20220830-19222-ybhfab.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=772&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481688/original/file-20220830-19222-ybhfab.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=772&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481688/original/file-20220830-19222-ybhfab.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=970&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481688/original/file-20220830-19222-ybhfab.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=970&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481688/original/file-20220830-19222-ybhfab.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=970&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Jacques-Louis David, Death of Marat, 1793.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Events granted the painting new momentum and relevance and emboldened its creator, catalysing his transition from court artist to political painter. </p>
<p>David became ever more involved in Revolutionary politics, designing Revolutionary festivals and dress, signing death warrants and creating its most enduring image, the <a href="https://www.fine-arts-museum.be/en/exhibitions/the-death-of-marat">Death of Marat</a>. </p>
<p>Brutus resonates not just because it demonstrates how politically alive painting can be, but also because it bends the rules of composition. By doing so, it enabled new generations of experiment. It broke the mould and redefined what is possible. </p>
<p>It points not to a distant past, but to the future.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/hidden-women-of-history-adela-de-labille-guiard-prodigiously-talented-painter-107801">Hidden women of history: Adélaïde Labille-Guiard, prodigiously talented painter</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/186745/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mark Ledbury has received funding for his work on Eighteenth-Century art and theatre from the ARC, and his work at the Power Institute is funded by the John Power Bequest and by a number of Philanthropic Foundations. </span></em></p>
Jacques-Louis David’s picture of death and despair has a strange and compelling beauty.
Mark Ledbury, Professor of Art History and Visual Culture, University of Sydney
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/188121
2022-08-18T12:39:57Z
2022-08-18T12:39:57Z
Ukrainian people are resisting the centuries-old force of Russian imperialism – Ukraine war at 6 months
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/479479/original/file-20220816-16068-oq2vva.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=14%2C28%2C4763%2C3130&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">People attend an exhibition of Russian equipment destroyed by the armed forces of Ukraine, in Lviv, Ukraine, Aug. 11, 2022. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/people-attend-the-opening-of-the-exhibition-of-russian-news-photo/1242453575?adppopup=true">Olena Znak/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The war being waged by Russia in Ukraine has been described in many ways – an attempt to <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-26769481">recreate the USSR</a>, a militant <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/22/opinion/russia-ukraine-putin-eurasianism.html">attempt to create a new Eurasia civilization</a>, or a <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/ukraine-russia-us-proxy-war-b2073399.html">proxy war between Russia and the West</a>. But whatever Russian President <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/putins-ambitions-seriously-set-back-failures-ukraine-ex-cia-chief-1692236">Vladimir Putin’s ambitions and aspirations</a> were in the past, they have become ever more blatantly imperial and colonial as the fighting continues. </p>
<p>A colonial war, like Russia’s in Ukraine, is one in which a self-styled superior people believes it has the right, even the duty, to do what it feels is good for its inferiors – which conveniently conforms to its own self-interest. </p>
<p>“Colonial” or “imperial” are not just epithets thrown around casually, as are the now-familiar accusations of <a href="https://theconversation.com/yes-putin-and-russia-are-fascist-a-political-scientist-shows-how-they-meet-the-textbook-definition-179063">fascism and genocide, most recently used against Russia</a>.</p>
<p>As polemical as their usage can be, colonialism and imperialism have explanatory power. </p>
<p>Imperialism was an <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/russias-empires-9780199924394?cc=us&lang=en&">antiquated system of domination</a> that attempted to include diverse peoples within a single state under the authority of a purportedly superior institution – emperors, nobles or Übermenschen – or in overseas empires under the control of a foreign master who promised to “civilize” – as they put it – the benighted natives. </p>
<p>Think of the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/British-raj">British in India</a> – white men lording it over millions of Indians in the name of a higher civilization. Or the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/summary/House-of-Habsburg">Habsburg dynasty ruling peoples</a> from Spain to the Netherlands to Austria and Hungary via strategic marriage and military conquest. </p>
<p>If empires were diverse and inegalitarian, modern nation-states were supposedly intended by their creators to be relatively homogeneous and egalitarian. <a href="https://www.versobooks.com/books/2259-imagined-communities">Nation-makers recognized popular sovereignty</a> rather than dynastic rule. They operated democratically. The right to rule rose up from the people. </p>
<p>Consider the earliest capitalist states of the 17th and 18th centuries – England, the Netherlands and France – that practiced nation-making at home in Europe. By the time of the French Revolution of 1789, their <a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/C/bo81816822.html">people were dealt with as equal citizens under the law</a>, not as a monarch’s subjects. </p>
<p>But in their colonies – like the Dutch East Indies or French Indochina – <a href="https://academic.oup.com/california-scholarship-online/book/18905">the locals were subjects of imperial authorities from afar</a>, bereft of rights and sovereignty.</p>
<p>In the historical stories told by nationalists, <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2009/10/14/empires-with-expiration-dates/">nation-states were supposed to be the legitimate successors of empires</a>. Relatively homogeneous culturally, with rulers chosen by the people, they were products of the modern world, while empires were seen as archaic and doomed to collapse. </p>
<p>But it has not quite worked out that way in the past century. And Russia’s war on Ukraine is a reflection of that.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/479478/original/file-20220816-9774-fdxygk.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Two men, one in a suit, the other in a uniform, talking across a table." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/479478/original/file-20220816-9774-fdxygk.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/479478/original/file-20220816-9774-fdxygk.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479478/original/file-20220816-9774-fdxygk.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479478/original/file-20220816-9774-fdxygk.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479478/original/file-20220816-9774-fdxygk.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=463&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479478/original/file-20220816-9774-fdxygk.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=463&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479478/original/file-20220816-9774-fdxygk.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=463&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, listens to Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu’s report in the Kremlin in Moscow on July 4, 2022.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/RussiaUkraine/209b825923bd40ecaa5b3d85c8a86c26/photo?Query=(persons.person_featured:(Vladimir%20AND%20Putin))%20AND%20%20(Putin%20Ukraine)%20&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=1175&currentItemNo=0">Mikhail Klimentyev, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP, File</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>21st-century imperialists</h2>
<p>Over the past century, those who believed egalitarian and democratic nation-states would logically and naturally succeed empires have gotten a reeducation in political theory. </p>
<p>Nation-states can be imperialist and seek to envelop other nationalities within their territory or dominate their neighbors militarily or economically. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s <a href="https://www.culturalsurvival.org/publications/cultural-survival-quarterly/kurdish-repression-turkey">Turkey treats its tens of millions of Kurds like a colonized people</a>. A nation-state privileging one ethno-religious people, like Israel, <a href="https://berkleycenter.georgetown.edu/responses/palestinians-in-israel-then-and-now">subjects millions of Palestinians to inequitable domination</a>. </p>
<p>Large diverse states, like the United States and India, swing between multicultural egalitarianism, recognizing the rights of minorities, and bouts of xenophobic hostility to those <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/trumps-immigration-rule-is-cruel-and-racistbut-its-nothing-new">differing from the majority, white</a> or <a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/mass-movement-or-elite-conspiracy-the-puzzle-of-hindu-nationalism/oclc/847441763">Hindu</a>. </p>
<p>Within such states some people are treated more favorably than others. Minorities often experience not only discrimination, but violence. Other large, diverse states, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/16/world/europe/putin-war-ukraine-recolonization.html">like Putin’s Russia</a>, also vacillate between a multinational nation-state – about 80% are ethnic Russians – and imperial treatment of various subordinate peoples. </p>
<p>The Kremlin elite has promoted a <a href="https://www.journalofdemocracy.org/articles/russias-road-to-autocracy/">virulent nationalism to rally the population</a> in its war against Ukraine, which represents a turn toward neocolonialism.</p>
<p>Take Putin’s opportunistic and disingenuous use of the <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/putin-vows-that-as-in-1945-ukraine-will-be-liberated-from-nazi-filth/">language of liberation</a>, of <a href="https://theconversation.com/putins-claims-that-ukraine-is-committing-genocide-are-baseless-but-not-unprecedented-177511">preventing genocide</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/decrying-nazism-even-when-its-not-there-has-been-russias-invade-country-for-free-card-183695">removal of Nazis</a> as justification for his invasion of Ukraine. He uses that language in the way 19th-century imperialists did when they invaded, dominated and exploited other countries, claiming they were reluctantly undertaking the <a href="http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5478">burden that white men had to bear to defend</a> against barbarians and savages. </p>
<p>Having failed to <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/nato-sees-russia-war-entering-stalemate-neither-side-can-win-rcna20877">decapitate the Ukrainian government</a>, the Kremlin retreated to <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/renewed-russian-attacks-strike-areas-ukraine-86927182">taking territory savagely in the east and south of the country</a>. The <a href="https://uacrisis.org/en/russkiy-mir-as-the-kremlin-s-quasi-ideology">mythology of the Russkiy Mir</a> – the supposed unity of the Ukrainian, Belarusian and Russian peoples – has been instrumentally deployed by Russia to justify the brutal attack on the very people who were supposed to be the brothers and sisters of the Russians. </p>
<h2>‘Threatened by dangerous inferiors’</h2>
<p>Contrary to Russia’s plans, Kyiv did not surrender. Ukrainians instead <a href="https://www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2022/0802/1313587-ukraine-russia-resistance-movement/">flocked to the struggle</a> against alien rule. The result of the invasion has been the strengthened resolve of Ukrainians to resist a new colonialism, which they remember having experienced for hundreds of years under the czars and the Soviets. </p>
<p>As a historian <a href="https://www.dartmouth.edu/%7Ecrn/crn_papers/Suny4.pdf">who has studied</a> <a href="https://lsa.umich.edu/history/people/emeritus/rgsuny.html">empires and nations</a>, I believe that once a government like Putin’s has concluded that its existence is threatened by dangerous inferiors, it is motivated to use its greater power and its own righteous sense of historical superiority to bring its enemies under control. </p>
<p>If indirect rule by pliant native rulers or satraps are not sufficient to remove the perceived danger, territorial acquisition is likely to follow. The option left to Moscow as the war grinds into stalemate is direct rule over Ukrainian territory. </p>
<p>Lands under the fragile and contested control of the Russians are already being <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-60506682">consolidated into a newly named territory</a>. A <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/luhansk-governor-says-russia-will-shift-main-focus-donetsk-region-2022-07-04/">governor has been appointed</a>, <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/russia-starts-giving-passports-to-ukrainians-from-donetsk-luhansk/a-49207353">passports issued</a>; the <a href="https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2017/02/27/ukraines-breakaway-luhansk-republic-adopts-russian-ruble-a57280">ruble imposed</a> as the official currency. Russia’s maximal goals appear to be to <a href="https://www.axios.com/2022/07/19/putin-russia-annex-ukraine-kherson-donetsk-luhansk">take possession of the whole crescent</a> in eastern Ukraine, from Kharkiv to Kherson/Nikolaev as well as Crimea, <a href="https://inews.co.uk/news/world/russia-annex-crimea-why-putin-invaded-2014-what-happened-nato-annexation-explained-1424682">annexed already by Russia</a> in 2014.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/479487/original/file-20220816-9595-6ekrue.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A young woman and a girl stand together amid destroyed homes, looking sad." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/479487/original/file-20220816-9595-6ekrue.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/479487/original/file-20220816-9595-6ekrue.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479487/original/file-20220816-9595-6ekrue.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479487/original/file-20220816-9595-6ekrue.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479487/original/file-20220816-9595-6ekrue.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479487/original/file-20220816-9595-6ekrue.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479487/original/file-20220816-9595-6ekrue.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Residents look at damaged homes from a Russian rocket attack, Aug. 16, 2022, in Kramatorsk, eastern Ukraine.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/APTOPIXRussiaUkraineWar/332b1ea4b75f49c48a1a4b05c886f0c1/photo?Query=war%20ukraine&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=26850&currentItemNo=1">AP Photo/David Goldman</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Reality bites back</h2>
<p>As a nation-state engaged in consolidating its <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/ukraine-democracy-separating-fact-fiction-russia-1690505">identity as democratic and Western</a>, Ukraine faces an implacable foe whose current sense of self is embedded in its imperial past and its distinction from the West. </p>
<p>Torn for 30 years of independence <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/07/22/ukraine-east-west-war-narrows-divide/">between East and West</a>, thanks to Russia’s aggression Ukraine has decisively chosen the West. The imperialist war has given rise to an effective, if desperate, anti-colonial resistance. Ukrainians are more united than ever before. </p>
<p>For Ukrainians, compromise between independence and sovereignty on one hand and subjugation to imperialism <a href="https://www.usip.org/publications/2022/07/russias-war-ukraine-how-get-negotiations">on the other appears impossible</a>. Surrendering land to the aggressor, it is widely believed, will only feed his appetite.</p>
<p>Almost six months into the war, the Russians have their own cruel calculus. Sergei Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister, has issued a dire warning: The <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/84c4beae-fbd6-4d1e-aeb5-5d147b9621a4">longer the war goes on, the more territory</a> will be seized by Russia and brought into the expanding Russian state. The West’s continued arming of Ukraine, he claims, only <a href="https://www.politico.eu/article/sergey-lavrov-russia-expand-ukraine-war-goal/">prolongs the war</a>. </p>
<p>There is, at the moment, <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/order-from-chaos/2022/08/01/russia-ukraine-and-the-decision-to-negotiate/">little appetite on either side for a negotiated settlement</a>. </p>
<p>But in this war of attrition, time and the weight of geography and population <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/21/world/europe/ukraine-russia-weapons-war.html">are on the side of the aggressor</a>. Russia can <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/d60ef086-a252-4d6d-8534-e39ccd541926">outlast its opponents and the West</a>. <a href="https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-japan-asia-middle-east-14350d5bd6d036c68159d02c2db79698">Overshadowing everything is the nuclear threat</a>.</p>
<p>War is a failure of reason, diplomacy and compromise. The <a href="https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-middle-east-global-trade-a2c89d94a0f8473b40a1fcde5710bda8">negotiations that allowed Ukrainian grain exports to resume</a> demonstrate that some compromise, however fragile, might be reached. </p>
<p>As difficult and unsavory as it is to negotiate with Putin, some end must ultimately be discussed. This is a tragic choice. Yet even empires have their limits, and when faced with determined opposition, they learn the harsh lesson of imperial overreach.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/188121/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ronald Suny does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Democratic nation-states were supposed to be the legitimate successors of empires. It hasn’t quite worked out that way in the past century, and Russia’s war on Ukraine is a reflection of that.
Ronald Suny, Professor of History and Political Science, University of Michigan
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/185427
2022-07-03T19:53:56Z
2022-07-03T19:53:56Z
Dangerous attractions and revolutionary sympathies: 5 Jane Austen facts revealed by music
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/470994/original/file-20220627-12-7i9jk3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C9%2C2044%2C1143&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Jennifer Ehle as Elizabeth Bennet and Emilia Fox as Georgiana Darcy in Pride and Prejudice (1995), BBC.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">IMDB</span></span></figcaption></figure><h2>1. Jane Austen played and sang</h2>
<p>Jane Austen played the piano from the age of about ten. Her family inherited some of her <a href="https://sites.google.com/site/janeaustensmusic/austen-family-music-books">books of sheet music</a>, including hundreds of manuscripts in her hand as well as printed music. </p>
<p>Along with piano music, there are many songs in the collection, and judging by the music we have, she seems to have been a soprano. She could accompany herself, improvising the piano part if necessary. </p>
<p>Most of what we know directly about <a href="https://sites.google.com/site/janeaustensmusic/home">Austen’s musicianship</a> relies on the memories of her niece Caroline, who was only 12 when Austen died. Uniquely among her younger relatives, it seems, Caroline actively shared both Austen’s literary and musical interests. Caroline remembers some of the songs Austen sang for her in her last years, and in January 1817, six months before her death, Austen wrote to Caroline: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>The Piano Forte often talks of you; – in various keys, tunes & expressions I allow – but be it Lesson or Country dance, Sonata or Waltz, You are really its’ constant theme.</p>
</blockquote>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/sense-and-sensibility-in-a-time-of-coronavirus-vicarious-escape-with-jane-austen-142817">Sense and Sensibility in a time of coronavirus: vicarious escape with Jane Austen</a>
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</em>
</p>
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<h2>2. Musical women featured in 5 of Austen’s 6 novels</h2>
<p>Catherine Morland in <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/50398.Northanger_Abbey">Northanger Abbey</a> happily abandoned her music lessons at an early age, but there are <a href="https://dspace.flinders.edu.au/xmlui/handle/2328/8256">female musical characters</a> in the other five of Austen’s six completed novels. </p>
<p>In <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/14935.Sense_and_Sensibility">Sense and Sensibility</a> Marianne Dashwood is the musical one, while her sister Elinor was “neither musical, nor affecting to be so”. Marianne’s music becomes a “nourishment of grief” for her when she is abandoned by Willoughby. </p>
<iframe width="100%" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/eUKqSIfFrMk" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<p>Another pair of sisters, Elizabeth and Mary Bennet in <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1885.Pride_and_Prejudice">Pride and Prejudice</a>, are both musicians. In their case, the contrast is between their attitudes to their music-making: Mary insists on playing a “long concerto” at an evening party, while Elizabeth “easy and unaffected, had been listened to with much more pleasure, though not playing half so well”. </p>
<p>In <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/45032.Mansfield_Park">Mansfield Park</a>, Fanny Price is not musical. Fanny has been brought to Mansfield Park as a young child to be brought up with her rich cousins, Maria and Julia, who are slightly older. Even at the age of ten, she can see that competing with her cousins for accomplishments will be futile, and she refuses to have lessons. </p>
<iframe width="100%" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/mx6mKSRitAc" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<p>Emma Woodhouse doesn’t exactly compete with Jane Fairfax in the music stakes in <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6969.Emma">Emma</a>. Emma knows perfectly well that Jane is much the better musician, and coming to admit that to herself and others is one stage in her faltering journey to maturity. </p>
<p>And in <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2156.Persuasion">Persuasion</a>, Anne Elliot is a consummate musician but does not envy the more showy accomplishments of the Musgrove sisters who play the harp, while she is still on the old-fashioned pianoforte.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-jane-austens-emma-at-200-51022">Friday essay: Jane Austen's Emma at 200</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
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<h2>3. Austen’s musical men are deceitful</h2>
<p>All sorts of women can be musical – or not – in Austen’s novels. It tells us something about each of them, but there’s nothing that the musical women have in common – they can be heroines, anti-heroines, dependant orphans, or spoilt rich young women. With the men, things are a bit different. </p>
<p>Who are the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/0013838X.2017.1322386">musical men</a> – not just the ones who enjoy music, but those who have some musical skill? There are not many.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/471006/original/file-20220627-17-q4cce8.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A woman in a feathered hat smiles at a man in a straw hat." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/471006/original/file-20220627-17-q4cce8.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/471006/original/file-20220627-17-q4cce8.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=314&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471006/original/file-20220627-17-q4cce8.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=314&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471006/original/file-20220627-17-q4cce8.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=314&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471006/original/file-20220627-17-q4cce8.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=395&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471006/original/file-20220627-17-q4cce8.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=395&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471006/original/file-20220627-17-q4cce8.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=395&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Greg Wise as the dangerously attractive but unreliable Willoughby, in Ang Lee’s Sense and Sensibility (1995).</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Willoughby, in Sense and Sensibility, sings duets with Marianne and copies out sheet music for her. In Emma, Frank Churchill sings duets with Emma and with Jane Fairfax at the Coles’ dinner party. What do these two gents have in common, apart from being musicians? They are unreliable and deceitful. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-clueless-at-25-like-a-totally-important-teen-film-140749">Friday Essay: Clueless at 25 — like, a totally important teen film</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>4. Austen heroes fall in love listening to musical women</h2>
<p>In Georgian times, the main role of the true gentleman, as far as musicianship is concerned, was to be an appreciative listener. One mark of an Austen hero is listening with enjoyment and attention to the woman who has attracted his interest. More than once, this is the shortest route to falling in love. </p>
<iframe width="100%" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/zUBcVxpr_nI" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<p>Colonel Brandon, unlike the rest of the company, pays Marianne “only the compliment of attention” when she is playing the piano in Sense and Sensibility. Mr Darcy’s “dangerous” attraction to Elizabeth is enhanced by music, which gives him an occasion to observe “the fair performer’s countenance”. In Mansfield Park, poor Edmund Bertram is “a good deal in love” after listening to Mary Crawford playing the harp. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-the-revolutionary-vision-of-jane-austen-71000">Friday essay: the revolutionary vision of Jane Austen</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>5. Austen’s music collection reveals sympathies with Revolutionary France</h2>
<p>Although <a href="https://essaysinfrenchliteratureandculture.com/gillian-dooley-jane-austen-and-the-music-of-the-french-revolution-essays-in-french-literature-and-culture-57-2020/">French music</a> is not mentioned in the novels, Austen had several French songs in her collection, some of them overtly political. </p>
<p>The husband of Jane’s cousin Eliza was executed by the <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-brief-history-of-the-long-standing-mistrust-between-the-french-people-and-the-elites-165569">Revolutionary</a> government in 1794, so one might expect royalist sympathies. However, the music in her collection provides an interesting new angle. </p>
<p>Within a few pages of one of the manuscript books, we find not only a Royalist ballad, and a song lamenting the suffering of Queen <a href="https://theconversation.com/if-i-could-go-anywhere-marie-antoinettes-private-boudoir-and-mechanical-mirror-room-at-versailles-160599">Marie Antoinette</a> as she awaits her fate, but also the music and five verses of words of the Marseillaise, the revolutionary anthem. </p>
<p>She chose not to write about it in her novels, but Austen knew very well what was going on over the channel – as her music shows.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/la-marseillaise-has-the-song-that-unified-the-french-republic-become-too-divisive-99045">La Marseillaise: has the song that unified the French republic become too divisive?</a>
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</em>
</p>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/185427/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gillian Dooley does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Music is featured in most of Jane Austen’s novels and recent research is teaching us more about her personal love of music. What can it tell us about the world of Jane Austen?
Gillian Dooley, Adjunct associate, Flinders University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/165507
2021-08-25T19:17:46Z
2021-08-25T19:17:46Z
Revolutionary broth: the birth of the restaurant and the invention of French gastronomy
<p>From the rise of click and collect to the advent of <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/business-47978759">dark kitchens</a>, the very concept of the restaurant is undergoing major changes. Even before the pandemic hit, consumers were moving away from the physical location of the restaurant, a transformation which has only been accelerated by coronavirus. These new ways of eating question the very identity of the restaurant itself, and invite us to investigate its origins.</p>
<p>The history of the restaurant is entwined with the history of France, its birthplace.</p>
<p>The word <em>restaurant</em> as we understand it today was accepted by the Academie Française – the body that governs the official use of the French language – in 1835. Until then, the “restauran”, also called “bouillon restaurateur” (restorative broth), was a dish composed of meat, onions, herbs and vegetables. A broth with medicinal and digestive properties, its aim was to give restore people’s strength.</p>
<p>The term <em>restaurant</em> therefore initially had a medical connotation and the places that offered this healing broth for sale in 1760s were also called “health houses”.</p>
<h2>The first restaurant</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://com546termproject.wordpress.com/the-past-19th-20th-centuries/the-origins-of-the-restaurant/">first restaurant</a> as we know it today opened in Paris in 1765 on the Rue des Poulies, today the Rue du Louvre. On the front of the shop is engraved the Latin phrase from the Bible:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Venite ad me omnes qui stomacho laboratis, et ego vos restaurabo.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This translates as, “Come to me, those whose stomachs ache, and I will restore you.”</p>
<p>The owner’s name was Mathurin Roze de Chantoiseau. Other writings mentioned a certain Mr Boulanger. The establishment sold “restauran” dishes such as poultry, eggs, buttered pasta and semolina cakes, whose light colour was said to have health benefits. It first enjoyed culinary success thanks to its signature dish of poultry with chicken sauce, which was renowned throughout Paris.</p>
<p>The philosopher Denis Diderot mentions the restaurant as early as 1767 in a letter to his correspondent and lover, Sophie Volland:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“If I have acquired a taste for the restorer? Really yes; an infinite taste. The service is good, a little expensive, but at the time you want… It is wonderful, and it seems to me that everyone praises it.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The writer Édouard Fournier also describes it in his book <em>Paris démoli: Mosäique de Ruines</em> (Paris Demolished: Mosaic of Ruins), published in 1853:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Nearby, in the Rue des Poulies, the first Restaurant opened in 1765, which was later transferred to the Hôtel d’Aligre. It was a broth establishment, where it was not allowed to serve stew, as in the catering trade, but where poultry with coarse salt and fresh eggs were served without tablecloths, on small marble tables.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Roze de Chantoiseau is said to be the first to propose the innovative concept of serving food without a fixed schedule, at an individual table and offering a choice of dishes, the price of which was indicated in advance, on the outside of the building.</p>
<p>At that time, in pre-Revolutionary France, the only place to eat outside the home was in a tavern or inn. But these places only offered <em>tables d’hôtes</em> (guest tables) with a single dish, at a price that was not fixed in advance, where people only came at a fixed time. The quality was not always good – people who went to these places did so to eat and not to enjoy the taste of a dish. Roasters and caterers who were also present at the time could only sell whole pieces and not individual portions.</p>
<p>This new way of eating was a great success, and <a href="https://www.frenchrights.com/the-birth-of-french-gastronomy">this style of restaurant spread and evolved</a>. The notion of the pleasure of eating became predominant, gastronomy developed and, to a certain extent, became more democratic. Before then, the only people who ate very well in France were the members of the court at Versailles and other nobles who had own personal cooks.</p>
<h2>The birth of the menu</h2>
<p>On the eve of the French Revolution, many of the hundred or so restaurants in the capital were very well known. Customers came to these places to sample dishes that pleased their taste buds, not simply sate their hunger.</p>
<p>The restaurant of the time was a luxurious place that could be found mainly in the Palais Royal district of Paris. Here lived an affluent, elite clientele capable of affording meals, which, although no longer reserved for aristocrats, were no less expensive for it.</p>
<p>The great novelty of the time was the introduction of the menu. Restaurants often offered a huge selection of dishes, so as historian Rebecca Spang notes, diners were usually invited to choose a from a smaller selection of these, displayed on a menu (derived from the latin “minutus”).</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/414293/original/file-20210803-15-13orsul.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/414293/original/file-20210803-15-13orsul.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/414293/original/file-20210803-15-13orsul.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/414293/original/file-20210803-15-13orsul.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/414293/original/file-20210803-15-13orsul.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/414293/original/file-20210803-15-13orsul.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=567&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/414293/original/file-20210803-15-13orsul.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=567&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/414293/original/file-20210803-15-13orsul.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=567&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Extract from the menu at Véry, 1790.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Bibliotheque de la Ville de Paris</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Antoine de Beauvilliers, a former officer of the kitchen of the Count of Provence, brother of the King, was the first private cook to leave his master and set up his own restaurant business in Paris. In 1782, he opened Le Beauvilliers in the Palais-Royal district on Rue de Richelieu.</p>
<p>This very luxurious place quickly became a huge success because it offered its customers – mainly aristocrats – the chance to eat as if they were in Versailles. The setting was magnificent, the service impeccable, the wine cellar superb and the dishes exquisite and carefully presented on magnificent crockery. For many years, its cuisine was unrivalled in Parisian high society. Le Beauvilliers is thus considered the first French gastronomic restaurant.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/414295/original/file-20210803-23-p62s8t.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="The art of cooking, by Antoine Beauvilliers" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/414295/original/file-20210803-23-p62s8t.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/414295/original/file-20210803-23-p62s8t.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=1014&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/414295/original/file-20210803-23-p62s8t.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=1014&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/414295/original/file-20210803-23-p62s8t.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=1014&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/414295/original/file-20210803-23-p62s8t.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1274&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/414295/original/file-20210803-23-p62s8t.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1274&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/414295/original/file-20210803-23-p62s8t.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1274&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The art of cooking, by Antoine Beauvilliers.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In the years before and after the French Revolution, many cooks who had previously worked for members of the nobility followed de Beauvilliers’ example and opened their own restaurants. Quality cuisine based on recipes, rituals and new ways of eating moved from the private kitchens of the aristocracy to the public kitchens of high society.</p>
<p>French gastronomic restaurants emerged and famous and luxurious brands such as Véry, Les Trois-Frères Provençaux (which imported brandade de morue and bouillabaisse to Paris from the south) or the restaurant <a href="https://www.grand-vefour.com/en">Le Grand Véfour</a>, which is still in service, were created.</p>
<p>The medical aspect of the first “bouillons restaurans” was now long gone and had been replaced by gastronomy, a cultural reference recognised worldwide to this day.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/165507/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nathalie Louisgrand ne travaille pas, ne conseille pas, ne possède pas de parts, ne reçoit pas de fonds d'une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n'a déclaré aucune autre affiliation que son organisme de recherche.</span></em></p>
The first restaurants in Paris were based on the medicinal powers of soup, but these establishments soon transformed into the temples to gastronomy we know today.
Nathalie Louisgrand, Enseignante-chercheuse, Grenoble École de Management (GEM)
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/165569
2021-08-16T17:58:06Z
2021-08-16T17:58:06Z
A brief history of the long-standing mistrust between the French people and the elites
<p>The history of contemporary France can be viewed through various prisms, but one of the most relevant is that of the tumultuous relations between the people and the elites.</p>
<p>In the long stretch of history from the Revolution of 1789 to the present day, moments of communion between them are rare: the <a href="https://parcoursrevolution.paris.fr/en/points-of-interest/20-the-festival-of-the-federation">Fête de la Fédération of 1790</a> (the predecessor of Bastille Day), the <a href="https://histoire-image.org/fr/albums/revolution-1830-trois-glorieuses">July Revolution of 1830</a>, the <a href="https://ehne.fr/en/encyclopedia/themes/political-europe/1848-european-people%E2%80%99s-spring/1848-european-people%E2%80%99s-spring">Spring of 1848</a>, the political truce known as the <a href="https://www.elysee.fr/en/raymond-poincare">Sacred Union in 1914</a>, the post-war <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Raymond-Poincare">Poincaré government from 1926 to 1928</a> and the return to power of Charles de Gaulle in <a href="https://www.elysee.fr/en/charles-de-gaulle">1958</a>.</p>
<p>All of these rare moments <a href="https://www.franceculture.fr/emissions/le-cours-de-lhistoire/les-elites-en-temps-de-crise-34-des-elites-si-peu-populaires-de-lancien-regime-a-nos-jours">followed serious crises</a> – that of the absolute monarchy in the 1780s, the reactionary turn under Charles X, the blindness of King Louis-Philippe and his main minister François Guizot in the 1840s, the uncertain entry into World War One, the painful exit from it, the crisis of the Fourth Republic and the Algerian War. Even then, it’s impossible to speak of total unanimity in the nation: there were always resisters, outcasts and scapegoats among the people and within the ranks of the elites.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>Lire cet article en français</em>: <strong><a href="https://theconversation.com/breve-histoire-dune-longue-defiance-entre-le-peuple-francais-et-les-elites-159153">Brève histoire d’une longue défiance entre le peuple français et les élites</a></strong></p>
<hr>
<p>These enchanted parentheses almost always closed quickly, either because the new leaders did not manage to resolve the crisis at hand, or because the people felt they were not being understood, the hopes they had placed in the elites betrayed. Sometimes, the elites or a counter-elite help to close the parenthesis more quickly. Rarely did they benefit from their own success in the long term.</p>
<h2>The elites always come out on top</h2>
<p>France has undergone thirteen major political changes since 1789, and yet there have been very few major changes to the country’s elite, despite an undeniable but slow process of democratisation.</p>
<p>The sequence from 1815 to 1848 is particularly emblematic. Only those who paid a certain amount of tax were eligible to vote and run in elections, and the gap between the “legal country” and the “real country” was very wide. Out of 29 million French people in 1816, there were just 90,000 voters and 16,000 eligible to run.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/396646/original/file-20210422-23-1v01tfg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/396646/original/file-20210422-23-1v01tfg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/396646/original/file-20210422-23-1v01tfg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=778&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/396646/original/file-20210422-23-1v01tfg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=778&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/396646/original/file-20210422-23-1v01tfg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=778&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/396646/original/file-20210422-23-1v01tfg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=978&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/396646/original/file-20210422-23-1v01tfg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=978&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/396646/original/file-20210422-23-1v01tfg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=978&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Casimir Perier by Louis Hersent, Château de Versailles, 1827.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casimir_Perier#/media/Fichier:Perier,_Casimir.jpg">Louis Hersent -- chateauversailles.fr/Wikimedia</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The landed gentry who had dominated the Restoration were swept away by the July Revolution of 1830, carried out by the bourgeoisie with the help of the Parisian people, but the latter quickly became frustrated. The July Monarchy relied mainly on high ranking civil servants and business owners – symbolically represented by the regime’s first two heads of government, two bankers: Jacques Laffitte and Casimir Perier.</p>
<p>In February 1848, the monarchy and its great notables were <a href="https://www.persee.fr/doc/rhmc_0048-8003_1966_num_13_3_2919">overthrown</a> in their turn by the petty bourgeoisie and the Parisian people. The latter were once again soon frustrated. Following a conservative turn in the government and a series of victories in legislative elections, the ruling elites of yesterday were returned to power by 1849.</p>
<h2>The origins of mistrust</h2>
<p>Mistrust of the elites is not specific to France, as shown by the populist victories of the past ten years in Great Britain, Italy, Eastern Europe and the USA. People largely distrust their leaders because of the results of globalisation, the remoteness of supranational institutions, the power of big tech companies and the associated economic and social crises from all of the above. The fact that they have been made a spectacle of by the media for the past 40 years and the hypercritical gaze of social networks do nothing to help matters.</p>
<p>But the French mistrust comes from much further back: it starts with a centralised and over-inflated state, an all-powerful bureaucracy, the almost exclusive training of the elite in the same <a href="https://theconversation.com/democratiser-les-grandes-ecoles-pourquoi-ca-coince-154247">select institutions</a> and a tendency to intellectualise problems which, sometimes, simple common sense would allow to be better addressed.</p>
<p>And while France seemed to go against the tide of populism by electing Emmanuel Macron over Marine Le Pen in 2017 – admittedly on the promise of a new world, new faces and new practices – distrust was not long in resurfacing on a large scale, as witnessed by the gilets jaunes movement, the massive strikes in response to pension reform or, more recently, the protests against the vaccine pass.</p>
<h2>New crisis, new training ground</h2>
<p>At each major crisis in post-Revolutionary French history, the people have questioned the role of the institutions that train the members of the elite.</p>
<p>France’s “grandes écoles” – its most prestigious academic institutions – were created during the <a href="https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-01366484/document">French Revolution</a>. In 1800, the Conseil d’État was founded to act as a nursery for the senior civil service, and in 1848 the meritocratic École Nationale d’Administration (ÉNA) was established, but quickly abolished to return to the previous system of nepotism and clientelism.</p>
<p>The École Libre des Sciences Politiques (today known as Sciences Po) and the <a href="https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89cole_sup%C3%A9rieure_de_guerre">École Supérieure de Guerre</a> were set up in the aftermath of the 1870 Paris Commune, and after the Second World War, ÉNA was refounded at the same time as the Institutes of Political Studies and the corps of civil administrators.</p>
<p>Today, in response to the gilets jaunes protests, Emmanuel Macron has decided to abolish ÉNA, which has become more and more cut off from the reality of French life over time. Macron, a graduate of the school, announced it would be replaced by an Institute of Public Service – designed to be more socially open and more adapted to the needs of France.</p>
<p>The search for scapegoats within the elites is also a very French trait: today, the ÉNA graduates known as “enarques”; under the Revolution, the aristocrats and the priests; at the end of the 19th century, parliamentarians and Jews; in 1914-18, the war profiteers; in the 1930s and under the Vichy regime, once again the parliamentarians, the Jews and the <a href="https://www.challenges.fr/france/les-200-familles-mythe-persistent_718692">“200 families”</a>. Always, the rich.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/395744/original/file-20210419-23-3b7n74.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/395744/original/file-20210419-23-3b7n74.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/395744/original/file-20210419-23-3b7n74.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/395744/original/file-20210419-23-3b7n74.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/395744/original/file-20210419-23-3b7n74.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/395744/original/file-20210419-23-3b7n74.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/395744/original/file-20210419-23-3b7n74.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">‘ The High Bank versus the Nation. PCF poster stigmatising bankers François de Wendel, Eugène Schneider, Jean de Neuflize and Édouard de Rothschild (1937 cantonal elections). zoomable=</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deux_cents_familles#/media/Fichier:La_Haute-Banque_contre_la_Nation._Pour_l'application_int%C3%A9grale_du_programme,_votez_communiste.jpg">Wikimedia</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A very French paradox</h2>
<p>The mistrust of the elites may have a long history in France but today, in an age of extreme media coverage and immediacy, the associated <a href="https://passes-composes.com/book/277">defeat of intelligence</a> is worrying. Genuine intellectual debate all too often disappears in favour of ersatz ideas dominated by the one-track thinking and the politics of offence.</p>
<p>What a long way we have come from the Enlightenment, where Rousseau said to d’Alembert: “What questions I find to discuss in those you seem to be solving” and even from the great disputes between <a href="https://www.lexpress.fr/culture/livre/sartre-aron-destins-croises_809968.html">Jean-Paul Sartre and Raymond Aron</a>.</p>
<p>The disappearance of one of our greatest intellectual journals, <a href="https://www.lemonde.fr/idees/article/2020/09/04/avec-la-fin-de-la-revue-le-debat-c-est-l-intellectuel-francais-qui-disparait_6050912_3232.html">Le Débat</a>, shows the extent of <a href="https://www.monde-diplomatique.fr/2021/04/ROBERT/63008">the impoverishment of thought</a>.</p>
<p>The French people are far from blameless in all this: don’t we get the elites we deserve, especially since the introduction of universal suffrage?</p>
<p>This is the conclusion of some foreign observers, including that of American scholar Ezra Suleiman, who has long studied this country. He <a href="https://www.grasset.fr/livres/schizophrenies-francaises-9782246705017">diagnoses</a> “a schizophrenic tendency” among the French to demand everything and its opposite: an aspiration for hierarchical power that must be exceptional, infallible and virtuous on the one hand, and a passion for equality, a desire for proximity to the elites, and a thirst for freedom on the other.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/165569/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Eric Anceau ne travaille pas, ne conseille pas, ne possède pas de parts, ne reçoit pas de fonds d'une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n'a déclaré aucune autre affiliation que son organisme de recherche.</span></em></p>
France has undergone thirteen major political shifts since 1789, and yet there have been very few major changes to the country’s elite.
Eric Anceau, Maître de conférences en histoire, Sorbonne Université
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/163366
2021-07-29T00:47:57Z
2021-07-29T00:47:57Z
History made the world we live in: here’s what you’ll learn if you choose it in years 11 and 12
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/413511/original/file-20210728-15-14j0qqt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Temple of Edfu temple, Egypt.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/egypt-edfu-temple-aswan-passage-flanked-1286767600">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>This article is part of a <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/senior-subjects-series-107516">series</a> providing school students with evidence-based advice for choosing subjects in their senior years.</em></p>
<p>History is for students curious about the world. It involves discovery, evaluation and imagination. </p>
<p>Around 40% of Australian senior students <a href="https://growingupinaustralia.gov.au/research-findings/annual-statistical-reports-2018/shaping-futures-school-subject-choice-and-enrolment-stem">chose to study</a> year 11 and 12 history in 2016. It was more popular than other humanities subjects such as geography and psychology and more girls chose to enrol (23%) than boys (18%).</p>
<p>Here’s what you need to know if you’re considering taking history in the senior years.</p>
<hr>
<p><iframe id="OAORi" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/OAORi/1/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<hr>
<h2>What kinds of history subject are there?</h2>
<p>There are a variety of history subjects offered across Australia. For example, Victoria’s history subjects include <a href="https://www.vcaa.vic.edu.au/curriculum/vce/vce-study-designs/australianhistory/Pages/index.aspx">Australian history</a>, <a href="https://www.vcaa.vic.edu.au/curriculum/vce/vce-study-designs/history/Pages/index.aspx">20th century history</a>, <a href="https://www.vcaa.vic.edu.au/curriculum/vce/vce-study-designs/ancienthistory/Pages/index.aspx">ancient history</a> and <a href="https://www.vcaa.vic.edu.au/curriculum/vce/vce-study-designs/revolutions/Pages/index.aspx">revolutions</a>. </p>
<p><strong>Australian history</strong> is only available in Victoria. It investigates Aboriginal history and contact with colonialists, through to Federation and 20th century nation building. But the subject is losing popularity. The number of students who completed Australian history <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/making-it-sexy-teachers-hope-revamp-will-save-vce-australian-history-20210625-p5848d.html">almost halved</a> between 2014 and 2019, from 1,245 in 2014 to just 632 in 2019.</p>
<p>Teachers are aiming to make it more interesting and the structure of Australian <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/making-it-sexy-teachers-hope-revamp-will-save-vce-australian-history-20210625-p5848d.html">history will change next year</a>. Instead of learning the entire span of Australian history chronologically, Victorian students will conduct two semester-length investigations of themes including creating a nation, power and resistance, and war and upheaval.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/413507/original/file-20210728-19-170wpyg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Old map of Australia with Nouvelle Hollande written across the landmass." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/413507/original/file-20210728-19-170wpyg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/413507/original/file-20210728-19-170wpyg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413507/original/file-20210728-19-170wpyg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413507/original/file-20210728-19-170wpyg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413507/original/file-20210728-19-170wpyg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=506&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413507/original/file-20210728-19-170wpyg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=506&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413507/original/file-20210728-19-170wpyg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=506&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Australian history explores how we got to the present, from Aboriginal history to building the nation of Australia as we know it today. (Map of Australia published in Le Tour du Monde journal, Paris, 1860)</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/australia-old-map-created-by-vuillemin-83042866">Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><strong>Ancient history and revolutions</strong> explores societies such as Ancient Egypt, classical Rome and Greece with a focus on politics, military and social history. Revolutions includes an in-depth study of French, American and Russian revolutions.</p>
<p>Year 12 student Taylah told us she took ancient history because:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I always had a fascination with the ancient Egyptian civilisation. I was especially interested in how civilisations have or haven’t learned from the past.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><strong>Modern history</strong> is available in <a href="https://educationstandards.nsw.edu.au/wps/portal/nesa/11-12/stage-6-learning-areas/hsie/modern-history-2017">New South Wales</a> and <a href="https://www.qcaa.qld.edu.au/senior/senior-subjects/humanities-social-sciences/modern-history">Queensland</a>. This generally focuses on prominent topics and events from the French Revolution to the present. It covers major conflicts such as the world wars, the Cold War, the Vietnam war, international race relations and peace initiatives such as the beginnings of the United Nations.</p>
<p>Modern history was the most popular course in NSW in 2020, with similar numbers of boys and girls choosing it.</p>
<hr>
<p><iframe id="KXvzq" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/KXvzq/1/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<hr>
<p>Uniquely, NSW offers an <a href="https://educationstandards.nsw.edu.au/wps/portal/nesa/11-12/stage-6-learning-areas/hsie/history-extension-2017">extension history</a> course, which examines historical theory and the uses of history today. This course features a major research project that places students in the role of a historian, extending learning beyond content to communicate conceptual understandings. </p>
<h2>What will I be learning?</h2>
<p>History is for students interested in understanding the origins of the present and who like to see beyond simple, right-or-wrong answers.</p>
<p>Samantha who is studying teaching at university told us she chose history in years 11 and 12 because:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>It always fascinated me how history made the world we live in. I also thought it was interesting how in Australia we are so tied to the Western world, considering geographically we are quite removed.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>History isn’t just about learning facts like names and dates. Senior history opens up knowledge to be questioned and explored in depth. For example, students can compare and contrast the revolutions of France and Russia and investigate whether and how the first world war was a precursor to the second.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/413504/original/file-20210728-27-8ia7jj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Russian men marching in the street with banners." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/413504/original/file-20210728-27-8ia7jj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/413504/original/file-20210728-27-8ia7jj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=381&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413504/original/file-20210728-27-8ia7jj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=381&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413504/original/file-20210728-27-8ia7jj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=381&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413504/original/file-20210728-27-8ia7jj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=479&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413504/original/file-20210728-27-8ia7jj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=479&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413504/original/file-20210728-27-8ia7jj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=479&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Students can compare the Russian the French revolutions. (Funeral of people killed by Czarist police on Feb 26, 1917 St. Petersburg, Russia)</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/russian-revolution-funeral-182-persons-killed-248215225">Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Jack who has a bachelor in business studies told us he:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>enjoyed the combination of skills involved in studying history: writing, critical analysis and assessment of a range of different sources such as books, film and interviews.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>A major skill students learn is historical inquiry. This means finding out about the past by researching information from different perspectives, locations and times. Students synthesise information to form a historical evidence-based argument. </p>
<p>Let’s take <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-dark-emu-debate-limits-representation-of-aboriginal-people-in-australia-163006">competing perspectives</a> on Aboriginal civilisation before the British arrived in Australia. For years, our <a href="https://theconversation.com/secondary-school-textbooks-teach-our-kids-the-myth-that-aboriginal-australians-were-nomadic-hunter-gatherers-133066">history textbooks told us</a> Aboriginal people were hunter gatherers moving from place to place. But more recent evidence claims many Aboriginal people cultivated the land for farming and aquaculture. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/secondary-school-textbooks-teach-our-kids-the-myth-that-aboriginal-australians-were-nomadic-hunter-gatherers-133066">Secondary school textbooks teach our kids the myth that Aboriginal Australians were nomadic hunter-gatherers</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>There is <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/culture/books/forensic-critique-of-bruce-pascoe-s-dark-emu-presents-a-different-view-20210719-p58ayt.html">still debate</a> about this in the media and in the classroom. Students could research the topic for themselves, read up on the different types of evidence and present their own conclusions.</p>
<p>History is best suited to students who enjoy research as well as reading and writing an argument in response to a question. Students need to be prepared for assigned reading and extended writing tasks.</p>
<h2>Where history takes you after school?</h2>
<p>Many careers are open to those who study history in senior school and later at university. Some careers that come directly from history study include:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>historian, genealogist (family history researcher) or archaeologist</p></li>
<li><p>school teacher</p></li>
<li><p>museum guide, curator, or education officer (someone who develops education materials and experiences in museums and other public history sites) </p></li>
<li><p>research officer for a policy institution, a member of parliament or industry think tank</p></li>
<li><p>librarian or archivist (including in conservation and preservation).</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Senior curator at a rail museum, Jennifer, told us: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>History was the only subject I liked. I chose modern and ancient history for senior because I hoped to have a career in history. I loved learning, analysing and evaluating, finding different sources and opinions, and deep discussions in class. Still choosing history today. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>But you don’t just have to take history for a career in it. History also helps develop a range of employment-related skills. </p>
<p>Many employers appreciate skills such as being able to write and communicate effectively and persuasively, to think critically, to consider multiple perspectives and to logically consider consequences based on evidence. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/if-the-government-listened-to-business-leaders-they-would-encourage-humanities-education-not-pull-funds-from-it-141121">If the government listened to business leaders, they would encourage humanities education, not pull funds from it</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>These skills are vital for careers such as in journalism, law, human resources, policy, diplomacy, and other jobs that require critical thinking and clear communication skills. </p>
<p>Rebecca, who studied modern and ancient history in school in Brisbane and then at university told us:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Studying social sciences gives a greater understanding and interest of the wider world […] I work in the UK public service now, and history provides you with excellent analytical, investigation and communication skills. Lots of people in my office have history degrees.</p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/413510/original/file-20210728-13-1are2n3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Woman taking books down from a shelf in the library." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/413510/original/file-20210728-13-1are2n3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/413510/original/file-20210728-13-1are2n3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413510/original/file-20210728-13-1are2n3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413510/original/file-20210728-13-1are2n3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413510/original/file-20210728-13-1are2n3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413510/original/file-20210728-13-1are2n3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413510/original/file-20210728-13-1are2n3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">You can use the research and analytical skills you learn in history in careers like archiving, being a librarian or a researcher in parliament.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/african-american-female-librarian-dressed-casual-1096209932">Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>When selecting subjects for senior school, there is one important consideration that is often overlooked or set aside. The senior years are hectic. Students should choose at least some of their school subjects for themselves, because they like them and they think the subject is valuable for them. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/choosing-your-senior-school-subjects-doesnt-have-to-be-scary-here-are-6-things-to-keep-in-mind-160257">Choosing your senior school subjects doesn't have to be scary. Here are 6 things to keep in mind</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>For many students, history is one of these subjects. By investigating the past, students discover insights about humans and the world they have inherited. These can help them find the paths they will take beyond school.</p>
<p><em>Read the other articles in our series on choosing senior subjects, <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/senior-subjects-series-107516">here</a>.</em></p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1417399025930698752"}"></div></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/163366/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
History isn’t just learning facts. Students learn about the past by researching information and synthesising it to form an evidence-based argument. This skill is useful for a range of careers.
Heather Sharp, Associate Professor, History and Curriculum Studies, University of Newcastle
Debra Donnelly, Senior Lecturer, University of Newcastle
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/163812
2021-07-12T20:09:09Z
2021-07-12T20:09:09Z
What is Bastille Day and why is it celebrated?
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/409782/original/file-20210705-25-vwqf37.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=45%2C0%2C5090%2C3139&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Fête de la Fédération at Champ de Mars on July 14, 1790. Woodcut by Helman, from a picture by C. Monet, Painter of the King</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source"> Bibliothèque nationale de France</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>French people travelling to or living in English-speaking countries are sometimes surprised when asked about their plans for “Bastille Day”: they refer to the day as <em>Quatorze Juillet</em> (14 July).</p>
<p>France’s National Day is not really about the storming of the Bastille, and the day’s English language name conveys a misleading image. But it gives us an interesting glimpse into how the English-speaking world imagines France’s revolutionary past. </p>
<p>The most common misconceptions about the French National Day are that it is a celebration of the anniversary of the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Bastille">storming of the Bastille</a> on July 14 1789, and commemorates the official beginning of the <a href="http://en.chateauversailles.fr/discover/history/key-dates/summoning-estates-general-1789">French Revolution</a>. </p>
<p>It is, in fact, a far more complex story.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/409588/original/file-20210705-35872-1wra8ve.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/409588/original/file-20210705-35872-1wra8ve.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/409588/original/file-20210705-35872-1wra8ve.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=470&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/409588/original/file-20210705-35872-1wra8ve.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=470&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/409588/original/file-20210705-35872-1wra8ve.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=470&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/409588/original/file-20210705-35872-1wra8ve.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=591&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/409588/original/file-20210705-35872-1wra8ve.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=591&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/409588/original/file-20210705-35872-1wra8ve.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=591&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Jean-Pierre Houël (1735–1813), The Storming of the Bastille, 1789.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Bibliothèque nationale de France</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>While English speakers refer to Bastille Day, in France the day is intimately related to a different historical event: the <em>Fête de la Fédération</em> (Festival of the Federation), a mass gathering held on July 14 1790.</p>
<p>In 1789, the people of Paris attacked the Bastille: a political prison, a symbol of the monarchy and an armoury. The citizens aimed to seize weapons, ammunition and powder to fight the royal troops stationed in the vicinity of Paris. </p>
<p>1790’s <em>Fête de la Fédération</em> was designed to inaugurate a new era which abolished absolutism and gave birth to a French constitutional monarchy. </p>
<p>Tens of thousands of people from all provinces converged on the Champ-de-Mars in Paris to attend a military parade led by <a href="https://www.biography.com/political-figure/marquis-de-lafayette">Lafayette</a>, a mass celebrated by <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Charles-Maurice-de-Talleyrand-prince-de-Benevent">Talleyrand</a>, and a collective oath-taking culminating in short but rousing speeches from King Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/409783/original/file-20210705-27-33voga.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/409783/original/file-20210705-27-33voga.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/409783/original/file-20210705-27-33voga.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=766&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/409783/original/file-20210705-27-33voga.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=766&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/409783/original/file-20210705-27-33voga.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=766&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/409783/original/file-20210705-27-33voga.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=962&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/409783/original/file-20210705-27-33voga.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=962&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/409783/original/file-20210705-27-33voga.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=962&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Oath of La Fayaette at the Fête de la Fédération, 14 July 1790, painter unknown, c1790-1791.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">musée de la Révolution française</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It was not an annual event: simply a day to herald in a period of national unity.</p>
<p>Less than three years later, the king and queen’s heads would meet the guillotine’s blade and the constitutional monarchy was replaced with the <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/why-france-its-fifth-republic-180962983/">French First Republic</a>.</p>
<h2>An ever-moving date</h2>
<p>France has had many days of national celebration, each reflecting the politics of its time. </p>
<p>Napoleon I (Emperor from 1804 to 1814) declared citizens should celebrate August 15: the date of his <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Name_day">name day</a> and of the Assumption of Mary. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/409581/original/file-20210705-35872-1pxja6u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/409581/original/file-20210705-35872-1pxja6u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/409581/original/file-20210705-35872-1pxja6u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=795&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/409581/original/file-20210705-35872-1pxja6u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=795&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/409581/original/file-20210705-35872-1pxja6u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=795&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/409581/original/file-20210705-35872-1pxja6u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=999&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/409581/original/file-20210705-35872-1pxja6u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=999&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/409581/original/file-20210705-35872-1pxja6u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=999&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The imperial decree that proclaimed August 15 (Napoleon’s name day) as National Day.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Bibliothèque nationale de France</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Under the Restoration (1814-1830), the regime celebrated its kings on their name days: Louis XVIII (1814-1824) on August 25 and Charles X (1824-1830) on May 24.</p>
<p>The July Monarchy (1830-1848) under Louis-Philippe I celebrated its birth in the heat of the “<a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/2639286?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">Three Glorious Days</a>” of July 27 to 29 1830.</p>
<p>The Second Republic (1848-1852) adopted May 4, the first meeting of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Constituent_Assembly_(France)">National Constituent Assembly</a> in 1848. Another new political regime celebrated itself once again. </p>
<p>Under the Second Empire (1852-1870), Napoleon III returned France’s national day to August 15: his name day.</p>
<p>In a little less than a century, France changed its national day half a dozen times. </p>
<h2>New symbols for a new era</h2>
<p>The disastrous and humiliating <a href="https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/treaty-of-frankfurt-am-main-ends-franco-prussian-war">defeat</a> France suffered against Prussia in 1871 led to the fall of Napoleon III and the advent of the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/France/The-formative-years-1871-1905">French Third Republic</a>, which needed its own new symbols. </p>
<p>For almost 15 years, there was fierce conflict between partisans of a monarchy and those in favour of a republican regime. The <a href="https://cup.columbia.edu/book/realms-of-memory/9780231084048">memory of the French Revolution</a> became one of their main battlegrounds, and the choice of a national day an object of dispute.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-what-is-it-about-versailles-69559">Friday essay: what is it about Versailles?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Some advocated for July 15, the name day of the last Bourbon pretender, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Henri-Dieudonne-dArtois-comte-de-Chambord-duc-de-Bordeaux">Henri, Count of Chambord</a>, in the hopes of an imminent restoration. </p>
<p>Left-wing radicals pushed for January 21, the anniversary of Louis XVI’s beheading in 1793. </p>
<p>Others wanted to celebrate <a href="http://en.chateauversailles.fr/discover/estate/royal-tennis-court">the Tennis Court Oath</a>, which signalled France’s rupture with feudalism on June 20 1789.</p>
<p>In the spring of 1880, politician Benjamin Raspail submitted a motion to declare July 14 the national day: a date shared between the <em>Fête de la Fédération</em> — a symbol of unity for the right — and the left-oriented image of the storming of the Bastille.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/409606/original/file-20210705-27-jge23u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/409606/original/file-20210705-27-jge23u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/409606/original/file-20210705-27-jge23u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=435&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/409606/original/file-20210705-27-jge23u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=435&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/409606/original/file-20210705-27-jge23u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=435&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/409606/original/file-20210705-27-jge23u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=547&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/409606/original/file-20210705-27-jge23u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=547&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/409606/original/file-20210705-27-jge23u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=547&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Bastille Day military parade photographed at Longchamp in 1880.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://military-photos.com/longchamps.htm">Collection of Jean Davray</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Thanks to the ambiguity of the date, the motion was passed into law — without specifying which <em>Quatorze Juillet</em> was to be commemorated. Raspail’s motion received the parliament’s approval based on the connection to the <em>Fête</em>, but the question of meaning was left open.</p>
<h2>Bastille Day Today</h2>
<p><em>Quatorze Juillet</em> inextricably embodies the curious and divisive legacy the French Revolution carries for the French. Beneath the veneer of celebrations, the question of the intrinsic nature of the Revolution and whether its goals — <em>Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité</em> — have been achieved is often relegated to the background.</p>
<p>It isn’t a day for reflection or politics. It is a day of leisurely family activities and celebrations, adorned with a lavish military parade displaying French power on the Champs-Elysées. In the evening, fireworks and popular dances known as <em>Bal des pompiers</em> (the Firemen’s Ball) take place throughout the country. </p>
<p>It is a time for fraternal celebrations, very much the ambition of the original <em>Fête de la Fédération</em>. References to the storming of the Bastille are invisible or near-invisible. The Revolution is seldom mentioned in the presidential interview.</p>
<p>Symbols of the 1789 Revolution are still the subject of contradictory interpretations and public controversy, as the recent <a href="https://www.franceinter.fr/histoire/avec-les-gilets-jaunes-la-revolution-francaise-toujours-aussi-presente">Yellow Vests movement</a> has shown. It is precisely this carefully maintained ambiguity in <em>Quatorze Juillet</em> which has enabled its endurance as France’s National Day: it can mean many things to many people.</p>
<p>The French can project their own understanding of what is being celebrated. They can choose between the storming of the Bastille and the people; the <em>Fête de la Fédération</em> and national unity; and everything in between.</p>
<p>Or they can simply enjoy a day off and admire the fireworks with their friends and family, oblivious to the complex story behind July 14.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/163812/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
The French celebrate Quatorze Juillet, not Bastille Day. In fact, the English-language name hides much of the surprisingly complex history of the day.
Romain Fathi, Senior Lecturer, History, Flinders University
Claire Rioult, PhD candidate in Early Modern History, Monash University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/145576
2020-09-24T10:45:41Z
2020-09-24T10:45:41Z
Marquis de Sade: depraved monster or misunderstood genius? It’s complicated
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/358225/original/file-20200915-14-aqu8up.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=5%2C15%2C3510%2C3521&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Portrait of the sadist as a young man by Charles Amédée Philippe van Loo (1719-1795).</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Donatien Alphonse François, <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/who-was-marquis-de-sade-180953980/">Marquis de Sade</a>, was a bestselling author in his day and yet he spent most of his life behind bars. His novels inspired the term “sadist” - “a person who derives pleasure, especially sexual gratification, from inflicting pain or humiliation on others” – and yet, in 2017, France declared his work a “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/dec/18/120-days-de-sodom-made-national-treasure-by-french-government">national treasure</a>”. So, was Sade a pornographer or a philosopher – and why does his name continue to cause such heated debate?</p>
<p>Two centuries after his death, Sade (1740-1814) remains a figure of controversy. On the one hand, his name is associated with the French Revolution and the <a href="https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/french-revolutionaries-storm-bastille">storming of the Bastille</a>, on the other, with rape, sexual terror and torture. During his lifetime, Sade was found guilty of sodomy, rape, torturing the <a href="http://www.artandpopularculture.com/Rose_Keller">36-year-old beggar woman Rose Keller</a>, imprisoning six children in his chateau at Lacoste, and poisoning five prostitutes with the aphrodisiac “Spanish fly”.</p>
<p>He managed to avoid the death sentence but still spent 32 years in prisons and insane asylums, partly due to the intervention of family members who kept him locked up to avoid disgrace. Momentarily freed under the French Revolution, he became “Citizen Sade”, participating in some of the key political events of the era, only to see his works seized, destroyed and banned under Napoleon Bonaparte. </p>
<p>His work remained censored throughout the 19th century and most of the 20th – but in 2017 the French State declared his <a href="https://voltairefoundation.wordpress.com/tag/marquis-de-sade/">120 Days of Sodom (1785)</a>, written in the Bastille on a 12-metre scroll, to be a “national treasure”. So what happened between his lifetime and ours to change his profile so radically? Here are five things we should all know about the Marquis de Sade.</p>
<h2>1. The most disgusting books</h2>
<p>Justine, or The Misfortunes of Virtue (1791), Philosophy in the Bedroom (1795), The New Justine (an extended version of Justine published in 1797) followed by the Story of Juliette, Her Sister (1797) and The 120 Days of Sodom, or the School of Libertinage (1785) – these are the works that led Napoleon Bonaparte to call Sade an author of “abominable” books and to have a “depraved imagination”. But they were penned behind bars and are the products of an incarcerated imagination – not accounts of his personal life and crimes. </p>
<p>No one escapes the satirical power of Sade’s pen – young or old, virtuous or corrupt, rich or poor – although his narratives are dominated by certain types, especially bankers, clergy, judges, aristocrats and prostitutes.</p>
<h2>2. Philosopher of the bedroom</h2>
<p>Sade lived in a time of terror. His writings may be read as a knowing inversion of Enlightenment high ideals as they were penned in France at the end of the 18th century in the shadow of the bloody guillotine. For example, <a href="https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/286357326.pdf">Philosophy in the Bedroom</a> – which contains a mock political pamphlet: “Yet Another Effort, Frenchmen, If You Would Become Republicans” – was written shortly after the fall of the leading radical Robespierre and it offers an absurdist take on the rhetoric and promises of the French Revolution. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/HIpC0GbSuWg?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>In it, Sade also reminds us that “were it among Nature’s intentions that man be born modest, she would not have caused him to be born naked”.</p>
<h2>3.Sade and sadism</h2>
<p>Sade’s taste for sodomy, paedophilia and flagellation, in addition to his fictional accounts of excessive orgies, which describe sexual cruelty and murder in excessive detail, led many to presume he was deranged. This status was magnified by the fact that he ended his life in the asylum of Charenton, although a scientific examination of his skull by a Dr Ramon after his death showed no physical or mental abnormalities - phrenology determined the skull “was in all respects similar to that of a Father of the Church”. Casts were even made of his skull, one of which now <a href="https://www.mnhn.fr/en/visit/lieux/musee-homme-museum-mankind">sits in the Musée de l'Homme in Paris</a>.</p>
<p>In Sade’s writings, however, the clergy are typically amoral characters and by the 19th century, the term “sadism” was <a href="https://nosubject.com/Sadism/Masochism">coined by psychoanalysts</a> to denote the experience of pleasure through the infliction of physical pain.</p>
<h2>4. Pornography at the service of women</h2>
<p>The feminist philosopher Simone de Beauvoir defended Sade in a 1951 essay entitled: “<a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/beauvoir/#:%7E:text=%E2%80%9CMust%20we%20Burn%20Sade%3F%E2%80%9D%20identifies%20the%20Marquis's%20decision%20to,his%20utopian%20appeal%20to%20freedom.">Must We Burn Sade?</a>”.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/359046/original/file-20200921-20-119zlle.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Cover for 2020 book about Sade by the author Alyce Mahon." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/359046/original/file-20200921-20-119zlle.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/359046/original/file-20200921-20-119zlle.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=857&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/359046/original/file-20200921-20-119zlle.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=857&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/359046/original/file-20200921-20-119zlle.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=857&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/359046/original/file-20200921-20-119zlle.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1077&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/359046/original/file-20200921-20-119zlle.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1077&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/359046/original/file-20200921-20-119zlle.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1077&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Controversial study: the author’s recent book about Marquis de Sade.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>She argued that his novels’ exploration of the idea that “in a criminal society, one must be criminal” was never more relevant and that his life story and increasing perversity in his fiction was a symptom of society’s increasing attempts to control him. </p>
<p>In the 1970s and 1980s, feminists engaged in heated debate over Sade and his philosophical value. <a href="https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/typescript-draft-of-the-sadeian-woman-by-angela-carter">Angela Carter defended</a> him for putting pornography “at the service of women” while <a href="https://nymag.com/nymetro/news/people/features/11907/">Andrea Dworkin insisted</a> his fiction only defended the male sexual desire to “possess” women.</p>
<h2>5. ‘Divine Marquis’</h2>
<p>By the 20th century, Sade was deemed “divine” by many intellectuals and artists who interpreted his writings as a dark mirror of man’s inhumanity to man. From <a href="https://diaboliquemagazine.com/legacies-sade-man-rays-imaginary-portraits/">Man Ray’s imaginary portraits of Sade</a> in the late 1930s, portraying him as a paragon of liberty beside the burning Bastille, as war loomed in Europe, to <a href="https://newhumanist.org.uk/articles/4908/salo-the-unseen-movie">Pier Paolo Pasolini’s film Saló (1975)</a>, which restages Sade’s 120 days of Sodom in fascist Italy, Sade’s name and writings offered modern artists and writers a means to address the horrors of war and totalitarian regimes. These are themes American artist Paul Chan explores in his mixed-media installations “<a href="https://www.greenenaftaligallery.com/exhibitions/paul-chan/press-release1">Sade for Sade’s Sake</a>” (2009) by conflating Sade and the “War on Terror”.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/VLdO-qkY1pQ?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>Sade’s writings may seem cold and cruel, but they can but leave a mark on the reader. Surely that is the power of art and why we must continue to read Sade.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/145576/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alyce Mahon does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
His name has become a byword for deviancy and sexual cruelty. But Sade has also provided creative inspiration for generations of writers and artists.
Alyce Mahon, Reader in Modern and Contemporary Art History, University of Cambridge
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/140888
2020-07-01T11:11:21Z
2020-07-01T11:11:21Z
History tells us that ideological ‘purity spirals’ rarely end well
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/344801/original/file-20200630-103668-10703cf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C8%2C2000%2C1077&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Iconoclasm: the beheading of the English king, Charles I, in January 1649.</span> </figcaption></figure><blockquote>
<p>Nobody is more dangerous than he who imagines himself pure in heart, for his purity, by definition, is unassailable.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Author James Baldwin’s words, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Nobody-Knows-My-Name">written in the America of the late 1950s</a>, captures perfectly a feeling in the air that is currently troubling public discourse in many Western countries. Increasingly, questions once treated as complicated inquiries requiring scrutiny and nuance are being reduced to moral absolutes. Just look at Trumpism.</p>
<p>This follows a now dismally familiar pattern: two camps are identified, the acceptable “for” and the demonised “against”. The latter are cast beyond the pale, cancelled and trolled. Identity politics has become a secular religion and, like any strict sect, apostates are severely punished. </p>
<p>This can lead to a “<a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000d70h">purity spiral</a>”, with the more extreme opinion the more rewarded in a pattern of increasing escalation. Nuance and debate are the casualties, and a kind of moral feeding frenzy results. </p>
<p>Are <a href="https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Purity%20Spiral">purity spirals</a> inevitable? It is natural for humans to form “in” and “out” groups. Identifying a common enemy is often the key to group solidarity. Nationalist politicians and the marketing teams who serve them know how effective such strategies can be with ill-informed electorates. Equally, if an individual can manifest virtues valued by the group, this fosters a sense of self-worth and belonging.</p>
<p>Unsurprisingly, we have been here before. History demonstrates the ease with which ordinary people commit atrocious acts, particularly during crises. When you believe you are morally superior, when you dehumanise those you disagree with, you can justify almost anything. Take the example of one of the most consequential purity spirals, <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/3161951?seq=1">the Puritan Revolution in 17th-century England</a>.</p>
<h2>Word of God</h2>
<p>The Puritans were certain that the godly majority supported them in toppling the tyranny of King Charles I. In their eyes, the monarch and his bishops were challenging the true word of God. The Puritans established an English Republic and Presbyterianism replaced Episcopalianism. Families were divided and fought during a bloody civil war across England, Scotland and Ireland. </p>
<p>The ultimate act of iconoclasm or cancellation is to kill another human being. The poet John Milton, in his <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Eikonoklastes">Eikonoklastes</a> (Icon Breaker) of October 1649, justified the execution of Charles I by arguing that shattering the sacred icon of monarchy had been essential to prevent the English people from being turned into slaves. </p>
<p>Living within a purity spiral defined Puritan society. Dress <a href="https://www.newenglandhistoricalsociety.com/puritan-dress-code-and-outrage-slashed-sleeves/">became simple</a>. Luxury was forbidden. <a href="https://warwick.ac.uk/newsandevents/pressreleases/when_christmas_was/">Christmas was cancelled</a>. And discipline <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/3166367?seq=1">became a social watchword</a>.
Marriage and patriarchy within the household <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/206103">were sacred</a>. Children were given first names such as “<a href="https://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/Nicholas+If-Jesus-Had-Not-Died-For-Thee-Thou-Hadst-Been-Damned+Barbon">Unless-Jesus-Christ-Had-Died-For-Thee-Thou-Hadst-Been-Damned</a>”. </p>
<p>The “saints” competed to show their godliness. Those who did not accept the new culture were condemned. It was said of beggars, <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=pJrQsqhVESYC&pg=PA551&dq=%22the+curse+of+God+pursueth+them%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjnkqrY0qnqAhXRaRUIHbsYAqMQ6AEwAXoECAEQAg#v=onepage&q&f=false">for example</a>, that “the curse of God pursueth them” because they had abandoned family life. A new tyranny replaced the old.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/344806/original/file-20200630-103683-114542k.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/344806/original/file-20200630-103683-114542k.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/344806/original/file-20200630-103683-114542k.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/344806/original/file-20200630-103683-114542k.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/344806/original/file-20200630-103683-114542k.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=473&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/344806/original/file-20200630-103683-114542k.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=473&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/344806/original/file-20200630-103683-114542k.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=473&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The mid-17th century was not the most liberal era if you didn’t agree with the majority view.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">British Museum</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Looking back from the 18th-century, many feared new waves of Puritans seeking to enforce their moral codes upon an unwilling society, bringing public violence and political upheaval. It was natural for the <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=WbLP6mA_F-gC&pg=PA299&lpg=PA299&dq=forty+thousand+Puritans+such+as+they+might+be+in+the+time+of+Cromwell+have+started+out+of+their+graves&source=bl&ots=qc1rU6fXtC&sig=ACfU3U3X4oMS6sWzBaKR_kjCU2TVI8E41w&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjMn-Lyu6nqAhVKfMAKHaBFCF4Q6AEwC3oECDUQAQ#v=onepage&q=forty%20thousand%20Puritans%20such%20as%20they%20might%20be%20in%20the%20time%20of%20Cromwell%20have%20started%20out%20of%20their%20graves&f=false">historian Edward Gibbon to note</a> during the anti-Catholic Gordon Riots of June 1780 that “forty thousand Puritans such as they might be in the time of Cromwell have started out of their graves”.</p>
<p>Some philosophers, such as the <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/hume/">Scot David Hume</a>, argued that the Puritan purity spiral <a href="http://www.english.upenn.edu/%7Emgamer/Etexts/hume.superstition.html">had been worth it</a>. Hume likened the process to a wild storm bringing calm. He called the devout crusaders “fanatics”, and also ridiculous. He also asserted that their passion for liberty had made Britain a free state with limited monarchy and enhanced civil liberties. </p>
<h2>Liberty, Equality, Fraternity</h2>
<p>Should we encourage purity spirals because they are the source of our liberty? No, we should not. Take another purity spiral during the French Revolution – perhaps the greatest in history. Few events have so united a population. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/345033/original/file-20200701-159781-1p13t5h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/345033/original/file-20200701-159781-1p13t5h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/345033/original/file-20200701-159781-1p13t5h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=850&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/345033/original/file-20200701-159781-1p13t5h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=850&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/345033/original/file-20200701-159781-1p13t5h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=850&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/345033/original/file-20200701-159781-1p13t5h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1069&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/345033/original/file-20200701-159781-1p13t5h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1069&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/345033/original/file-20200701-159781-1p13t5h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1069&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Zenith of French Glory (1793) by James Gillray.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">British Museum</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The Revolution began with the <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=-Rt7Cq7f-KcC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false">iconoclastic storming the Bastille</a>, the prison symbolising absolutism whose walls were reduced to rubble. Within months, a new world was established. Aristocrats gave up their feudal rights. Empire and war were rejected. Liberty and rights were proclaimed. Hairstyles changed (no more wigs). So did fashion (no bling). </p>
<p>By January 1793, after years of controversy over the nature of liberty, the head of state, Louis XVI, was executed for treason. Monuments of monarchy then toppled. Royal tombs were desecrated. Many aristocrats changed their names to signal their dedication to republican revolution. The rich cousin of the king, Louis Philippe, duc d'Orléans, changed his name to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2008/nov/01/french-revolution-books">Philippe Égalité</a>.</p>
<p>But by the end of the year, the revolutionaries had turned upon themselves. A law passed the governing Convention on April 1, 1793 condemning any person deemed an enemy of liberty. Although Égalité voted for the law, he soon became its victim, guillotined in November by the Revolutionary Tribunal. </p>
<p>The republican church began to break up as <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=ukxaAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA32&dq=intitle:robespierre&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiI_LL91anqAhWPa8AKHWkXDWAQ6AEwAHoECAEQAg#v=onepage&q&f=false">virtue-signalling reached new heights</a>. Under “the incorruptible” Robespierre, anyone with an aristocratic demeanour or critical of government was imprisoned. Thousands died. The philosopher Condorcet, a true supporter of equality between the sexes, was arrested for carrying a Latin book by Horace. </p>
<p>Having any connection to the English enemy brought suspicion. <a href="https://reviews.history.ac.uk/review/2316">Thomas Paine</a> remained imprisoned for almost a year because the US ambassador, Gouverneur Morris, who hated Paine, would not vouch that he was no longer English. Critics of Robespierre, such as <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Jacques-Pierre-Brissot">Jacques-Pierre Brissot</a>, ended up singing republican songs on their way to the guillotine, convinced that <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=TI-1wQEACAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false">mad anarchists had hijacked the Revolution</a> and commenced indiscriminate murder.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/344808/original/file-20200630-103653-yreo48.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/344808/original/file-20200630-103653-yreo48.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=840&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/344808/original/file-20200630-103653-yreo48.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=840&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/344808/original/file-20200630-103653-yreo48.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=840&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/344808/original/file-20200630-103653-yreo48.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1056&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/344808/original/file-20200630-103653-yreo48.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1056&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/344808/original/file-20200630-103653-yreo48.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1056&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Having consigned many others to death by ‘Madame Guillotine’, Maximilian Robespierre met his end the same way in July 1794. Engraving by Giacomo Aliprandi of a design by Giacomo Beys.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Bibliothèque nationale de France</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Hume was right that fanaticism and virtue-signalling burn themselves out. Robespierre found himself on the execution block. The price was civil war. The Revolution then went the way of so many democratic revolutions, descending into aristocratic rule (<a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Directory-French-history">The Directory</a>) until a general conducted a coup. Napoleon Bonaparte crowned himself emperor, delighting the populace by combining public order and military victory. </p>
<p>In asserting his authority, Bonaparte warned that the alternative to his rule was a descent into Terror. He overran most of Europe, replacing monarchs with members of his family. His new aristocracy was the Légion d'honneur. Savvy followers learned the lesson, including <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/3625978/A-role-model-for-all-dictators.html">Stalin and Mao</a> – make the people afraid of so-called fanatics and they will follow you.</p>
<h2>Lessons for today</h2>
<p>The lesson: purity spirals can topple authoritarian regimes, but assist new authoritarians in ruining the lives of innocent people. They turn families and friends against one another.</p>
<p>At the end of his life, Hume worried that a lust for liberty was turning fanatical. Hume’s disciples attacked the French Revolution for reigniting religious warfare. Instead of killing each other to save souls, people now did so in the name of freedom. Civil liberties were forgotten.</p>
<p>As polarisation intensifies, people are increasingly loath to consider opinions that don’t reinforce their own. Quite literally the road to hell can be paved with good intentions.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/140888/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
The polarisation of today’s political discourse has echoes of the intolerance that characterised the Puritan era and the French Revolution.
Katrin Redfern, Visiting Fellow at the Institute of Intellectual History, University of St Andrews
Richard Whatmore, Professor of Modern History, University of St Andrews
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/134635
2020-03-31T12:10:02Z
2020-03-31T12:10:02Z
Simonini’s letter: the 19th century text that influenced antisemitic conspiracy theories about the Illuminati
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/323987/original/file-20200330-146724-eglgej.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=22%2C14%2C875%2C513&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">How a conspiracy theory about the origins of the French Revolution became steeped in antisemitism. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2f/Octobre_1793%2C_supplice_de_9_%C3%A9migr%C3%A9s.jpg">Nine émigrés executed by guillotine, from La Guillotine in 1793 by H. Fleischmann/Wikimedia</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>A French Catholic priest called Augustin Barruel is generally regarded as one of history’s most famous conspiracy theorists. His multi-volume 1797 book, <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=tD8EQB61TFkC&source=gbs_navlinks_s">Memoirs Illustrating the History of Jacobinism</a>, about an alleged conspiracy that led to the outbreak of the French Revolution, has been reprinted many times and translated into several languages. </p>
<p>Not long after the publication of his work, Barruel was sent a letter by a man called Jean Baptiste Simonini, who alleged that the Jews were also part of the conspiracy. This letter – the original of which has never been found – continues to shape antisemitic conspiracy thinking to this day.</p>
<p>Even before the revolution, Barruel had become famous in France as a conservative writer and journalist. The trainee Jesuit priest strongly opposed the new philosophy of the time – the convictions of Diderot, d'Alembert or even Voltaire – which he regarded as radical. </p>
<p>In his book, Barruel’s conspiracy theory had three component parts. First, he assumed that radical philosophers in Voltaire’s circle had stirred up society. Second, he complained about the multitude of Freemasons in France. Third, he introduced the Illuminati. </p>
<p>The Illuminati <a href="https://www.lewismasonic.co.uk/the-secret-school-of-wisdom-the-authentic-rituals-and-doctrine-of-the-illuminati.htm">was a real secret group, founded</a> in the Bavarian city of Ingolstadt in 1776. Around the time of the Illuminati’s discovery in 1784, a conspiracy theory was stirred up by its staunch enemies accusing the group of wanting to overthrow all thrones and altars and to completely transform society. Even though the Illuminati was eventually disbanded before the outbreak of the French Revolution, many conspiracy theorists believed that its ideas, which were considered radical, had been carried to France by an important member.</p>
<p>For Barruel these three connected conspiracies ultimately led to the rise of the the Jacobins – the most influential political club during the French Revolution. </p>
<p>European conspiracy theories until this point had <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/9780429452734/chapters/10.4324/9780429452734-3_8">long presented Jews</a> as evil and disruptive figures. However, Jews played no role in the conspiracy theory Barruel set out in his book. But then he was sent the letter from Simonini. </p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/320763/original/file-20200316-128086-glagrj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/320763/original/file-20200316-128086-glagrj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=200&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/320763/original/file-20200316-128086-glagrj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=200&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/320763/original/file-20200316-128086-glagrj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=200&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/320763/original/file-20200316-128086-glagrj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=251&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/320763/original/file-20200316-128086-glagrj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=251&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/320763/original/file-20200316-128086-glagrj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=251&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><em>This article is part of a series tied to the Expert guide to conspiracy theories, a series by The Conversation’s The Anthill podcast. <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/the-anthill-podcast-27460">Listen here</a>, on <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-anthill/id1114423002?mt=2">Apple Podcasts</a> or <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/265Bnp4BgwaEmFv2QciIOC?si=-WMr1ecDTsO_6avrkxZu8g">Spotify</a>, or search for The Anthill wherever you get your podcasts.</em></p>
<hr>
<h2>The Simonini letter</h2>
<p>Barruel <a href="https://books.google.at/books?id=8DjSDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT864&lpg=PT864&dq=le+contemporain+1878+simonini&source=bl&ots=TDUl255se7&sig=ACfU3U3efkutXlTd5FKOYqlj9QakHPylGQ&hl=de&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi5sI_L3b_oAhXCpIsKHd_EDfMQ6AEwAHoECAsQAQ#v=onepage&q=le%20contemporain%201878%20simonini&f=false">received</a> a letter from the unknown Jean Baptiste Simonini from Florence on 20 August 1806, written on August 1.</p>
<p>Very little is known about Simonini, but he was not an invention or imagination of Barruel. He <a href="https://www.torrossa.com/en/catalog/preview/2949209">held the rank of captain</a> in the Piedmontese army and from 1815 lived in Lilianes in the Aosta Valley. </p>
<p>In his letter, Simonini first congratulated Barruel on his book, but alleged that behind the Freemasons and Illuminati were the Jews. Simonini wrote that he realised this must seem like an exaggeration to Barruel, and so he tried to convince him of his theory by recounting his personal experience. In fact, in Piedmont, Simonini told Barruel, Jews had initiated him into their plans. It’s important to stress here that this is all a conspiracy theory.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/323983/original/file-20200330-146671-1x9pv5i.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/323983/original/file-20200330-146671-1x9pv5i.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=657&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/323983/original/file-20200330-146671-1x9pv5i.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=657&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/323983/original/file-20200330-146671-1x9pv5i.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=657&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/323983/original/file-20200330-146671-1x9pv5i.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=826&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/323983/original/file-20200330-146671-1x9pv5i.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=826&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/323983/original/file-20200330-146671-1x9pv5i.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=826&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Augustin Barruel.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Augustin_Barruel_par_Auguste_Pidoux.png">Auguste Pidoux, after Desrosiers via Wikimedia.</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Barruel was irritated because he hadn’t come across this connection himself. He tried to verify the authenticity of the letter by writing to various personalities, including important bishops. After being told that Simonini could be trusted, Barruel began to study the Jewish history of his conspiracy theory intensely. </p>
<p>In the Jesuit archives in Vanves, just outside Paris, for example, I’ve <a href="https://www.hsozkult.de/publicationreview/id/reb-21394">seen a copy of his book</a> accompanied by notes written by him after 1806. At various points in these notes, Barruel wrote Simonini’s name over a passage about Jews and remarked that it was probably Jews who were pulling the strings. </p>
<p>But Barruel didn’t choose to regard Jews as the main conspirators. He sent Simonini’s letter to some of his Jesuit friends and wrote his opinion of the great conspiracy as a postscript underneath. A variant of such a letter was <a href="https://books.google.at/books?id=8DjSDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT864&lpg=PT864&dq=le+contemporain+1878+simonini&source=bl&ots=TDUl255se7&sig=ACfU3U3efkutXlTd5FKOYqlj9QakHPylGQ&hl=de&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi5sI_L3b_oAhXCpIsKHd_EDfMQ6AEwAHoECAsQAQ#v=onepage&q=le%20contemporain%201878%20simonini&f=false">written shortly before his death</a> in 1820. In it, Barruel made clear that he was now much more convinced that a Freemason conspiracy started the revolution, and that although many Jews were Freemasons, they alone were not to blame for the conspiracy. He wrote that he wanted to prevent a massacre against Jews. </p>
<h2>Feeding into antisemitism</h2>
<p>But it was too late – copies of Simonini’s letter were already circulating secretly within conservative elites at the beginning of the 19th century and causing damage. It was the letter’s first publication in 1878 in a conservative magazine called <a href="https://books.google.at/books?id=ZUol2E5h3awC&pg=PA54&dq=le+contemporain+barruel&hl=de&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiZwOWX37_oAhUFHHcKHRxQAaAQ6AEIQjAD#v=onepage&q=le%20contemporain%20barruel&f=false">Le Contemporain</a> that led it being quoted in various antisemitic conspiracy theory texts. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/antisemitism-how-the-origins-of-historys-oldest-hatred-still-hold-sway-today-87878">Antisemitism: how the origins of history’s oldest hatred still hold sway today</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Today, Simonini’s letter is regarded as an influence in the publication of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a fake transcript of a secret meeting of Jewish leaders plotting world domination. This widely read <a href="https://read.dukeupress.edu/new-german-critique/article-abstract/35/1%20(103)/83/33011/The-Protocols-of-the-Elders-of-Zion-Between?redirectedFrom=fulltext">conspiracy theory</a> was first published in Russian in 1903. </p>
<p>Even though Simonini’s letter and the publication of the Protocols were ultimately a century apart, the conspiracy theory formed in 1806 was the starting point of a renewed debate about the role of Jews in European society. The conspiracy theories that emerged as part of this debate in the 19th and 20th centuries led to modern antisemitism and all its disastrous consequences.</p>
<h2>Questions of origin</h2>
<p>Some <a href="https://www.torrossa.com/en/catalog/preview/2949209">researchers believe</a> that Simonini’s letter could well be an invention from the 1870s – a time when antisemitism was rising in Europe and when it first appeared publicly in Le Contemporain.</p>
<p>Others assume that Barruel could have written the letter himself. Yet <a href="https://www.torrossa.com/en/catalog/preview/2949209">others believe</a> that Simonini’s letter was fabricated by the French police and sent to Barruel owing to his prominence.</p>
<p>My own research has documented how various copies of the letter from the early 1800s have been <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Routledge_Handbook_of_Conspiracy_Theorie.html?id=8DjSDwAAQBAJ&source=kp_book_description&redir_esc=y">discovered</a> in Western and Eastern European archives in recent years. This means that the letter is certainly not a product of the 1870s. Nor is it conceivable, based on Barruel’s comments, that he invented it himself. </p>
<p>The problem is that the original copy of the Simonini letter has never been found. It’s believed to be somewhere in the Vatican Apostolic Archive – but so far this has not been verified.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/134635/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Claus Oberhauser received funding from the FWF (Fonds zur Förderung der wissenschaftlichen Forschung)</span></em></p>
The dangerous legacy of a letter received by Augustin Barruel, a French Catholic priest and famous conspiracy theorist, in the early 1800s.
Claus Oberhauser, Professor of History Didactics, University College of Teacher Education Tyrol
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/134002
2020-03-20T11:02:59Z
2020-03-20T11:02:59Z
Pandemics don’t heal divisions – they reveal them. South Africa is a case in point
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/321358/original/file-20200318-1926-zwj5be.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A taxi rank marshal sprays hand sanitiser on a commuter wearing a mask as a preventive measure as she arrives at the Wanderers taxi rank in Johannesburg.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Marco Longari/AFP via Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Some around the world predict that the COVID-19 will heal divisions and narrow inequalities. A pandemic, <a href="https://africasacountry.com/2020/03/what-lies-ahead">they claim,</a> can remind us of our common humanity and the need to discard prejudices. It can also highlight inequalities and injustices and prompt people in power to deal with them.</p>
<p>In Europe, some predict it <a href="https://www.axios.com/coronavirus-gig-economy-work-28f12834-f1ec-4ae4-9b17-cfa65b92c3ef.html">will highlight</a> the plight of people in the ‘gig economy’ who do not enjoy a guaranteed wage. In the US, there are hopes that it may make it easier for people who cannot <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/17/senators-push-to-expand-vote-by-mail-as-coronavirus-keeps-people-home.html">get to polling booths to vote</a>.</p>
<p>In South Africa, some hope it will prompt action against the conditions which make it harder for <a href="https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/opinionista/2020-03-19-thanks-to-the-coronavirus-we-can-see-the-possible/">poor people to protect themselves</a>. </p>
<p>The claim that pandemics prompt the rich and people in power to care more about social inequities anywhere is dubious. Those who believe this like to quote the historian Walter Scheidel’s 2017 book <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691183251/the-great-leveler">The Great Leveler</a> which, they claim, argued that pandemics can dent inequality by showing that human progress depends on tackling inequality. </p>
<p>But Scheidel didn’t argue that epidemics showed the rich how much they had in common with the poor. His point is that they weakened the rich in ways which helped the poor, which is not at all what the optimists have in mind.</p>
<p>In <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/12/opinion/pandemic-coronavirus-compassion.html">a recent interview</a>, Frank Snowden, an American historian of epidemics, said he agreed with a World Health Organisation (WHO) official that the virus should teach us that</p>
<blockquote>
<p>the health of the most vulnerable people among us is a determining factor for the health of all of us.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>But he was not optimistic that the lesson would be learned.</p>
<p>Snowden finds that pandemics <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a/how-pandemics-change-history">can heighten prejudice against the poor</a>. In Paris, after the 1848 revolution or the (1871) Paris Commune, people were “slaughtered” because the</p>
<blockquote>
<p>people who were in command saw that the working classes were dangerous politically, but they were also very dangerous medically.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>So, attitudes which prop up inequality and division may actually worsen under the pressure of an epidemic. It seems logical to expect those who are threatened by their fellow citizens to feel even more prejudice when they face a medical threat.</p>
<p>Reactions in South Africa today may not show that prejudices against the poor are getting worse. But they are very much alive and give little reason for hope that the virus will bring South Africans closer together or trigger more energetic action against poverty.</p>
<h2>Irrational responses</h2>
<p>The first evidence came before the virus reached the country. Radio talk shows were inundated by callers warning that ‘porous borders’ placed the country at risk. This expressed a widespread South African prejudice: immigrants from elsewhere in Africa are a disease-bearing threat.</p>
<p>This was irrational – poor people do not visit China or the European countries where the virus has spread. But prejudices are irrational.</p>
<p>As the virus arrived, new prejudices emerged. Demands for controls mounted: South Africans would only be safe if borders were closed and everyone’s movement was controlled. President Cyril Ramaphosa was denounced for not locking everyone down. </p>
<p>Snowden’s work shows that harsh lockdowns <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a/how-pandemics-change-history">don’t work</a>. Controls on ‘social distance’ do, but only if people are treated sympathetically. If they are not, they don’t trust the authorities and will not report cases.</p>
<p>But middle classes used to living far from the poor do see control as the solution to all problems. The focus on Ramaphosa showed a deep-seated view – ‘leaders’ are assumed to require supernatural powers and so are blamed for everything which goes wrong. This is an anti-democratic view which shows no faith in the abilities of grassroots citizens (or much grasp of reality: presidents don’t single-handedly control epidemics). </p>
<p>It also judges political leaders on how ‘tough’ they get, which is unlikely to heal any divisions.</p>
<h2>Prejudices</h2>
<p>Attitudes towards poor black people living in shack settlements and urban townships are more complicated. </p>
<p>It’s frequently said that the virus is sure to decimate these areas. This partly supports the view that eyes are being opened to poverty because it is based on real concern: it is harder for people who may lack access to clean water, live in overcrowded conditions, rely on public transport and lack quality health care to protect themselves. People in these areas who have jobs are unlikely to enjoy the luxury of working at home.</p>
<p>But most of the ‘concern’ expresses prejudices which feed division and inequality. Many in the middle-class see the places where poor people live as dangerous and disease-ridden –– the way upper class Europeans saw slums in their countries. Their residents are assumed to be ignorant and dirty although in reality they are well-informed on the virus and are often more concerned about personal hygiene than the middle class.</p>
<p>It also expresses common prejudices about majority rule – it is assumed that it will always end in disaster, even if the government seems to be doing what it should. On some radio channels, the government is denounced by callers for not informing the public, although it has constantly done just that: many in the racial minorities assume that nothing a majority black government says can be believed.</p>
<p>Given South Africa’s racial divisions, it is perhaps no surprise that some black people replied with their own myth: that the virus could not affect you if you were black. Perhaps the fact that the virus began with <a href="https://www.dispatchlive.co.za/news/2020-03-09-breaking-news-four-new-covid-19-cases-confirmed-in-sa/">people returning from skiing holidays </a> was too good to pass up for people used to enduring the myth that some South Africans are inherently better than others.</p>
<p>Another response – although this was not purely South African – <a href="https://ewn.co.za/2020/03/17/here-s-what-sa-retailers-are-doing-to-curb-coronavirus-panic-buying">was panic buying </a>. There are many interpretations of why this happens but the people doing it were affluent enough to afford bulk buying, their first instinct was to grab what they could, and they may be stocking up so they can opt out of society rather than joining others to fight the virus, the response Ramaphosa proposed when he announced the government measures.</p>
<p>None of these responses signal that divisions are narrowing. Nor, despite some concern for people living in poverty, do they suggest that the threat of an epidemic has prompted new desire to change the conditions in which poor people live.</p>
<p>So, South African attitudes may not express a desire to make poor people pay for a virus they did not bring. But they also give little cheer to those who expect a new era of solidarity and social concern.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/134002/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Steven Friedman does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Reactions in South Africa give little reason for hope that the virus will bring people closer together or trigger more energetic action against poverty.
Steven Friedman, Professor of Political Studies, University of Johannesburg
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/132997
2020-03-11T12:16:13Z
2020-03-11T12:16:13Z
How we learned to keep organs alive outside the body: a horrible history
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/318672/original/file-20200304-66069-ba1de5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://wellcomecollection.org/works/yck89mj6">© Wellcome Collection</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Organ transplantation is one of the success stories of modern medicine. Around <a href="http://www.transplant-observatory.org/">139,000 transplants</a> are performed annually across the world. One of the most recent success stories is a <a href="https://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1181228.shtml">double-lung transplant</a> for a patient with COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, in China.</p>
<p>Successful organ donation is a fairly recent phenomenon, still only decades old. The first successful kidney transplant was performed by a group of surgeons led by Dr Joseph Murray in Boston in 1954 between the identical Herrick twins – the recipient lived for eight years.</p>
<p>But the story does not really begin there. As a concept, transplantation of body parts can be seen as early at the third century, with the Arabian physicians Cosmos and Damien <a href="https://wellcomecollection.org/works/yck89mj6">depicted</a> in several famous paintings “successfully” transplanting an entire leg.</p>
<p>But in order for transplants to be medically viable, scientists first had to work out how to preserve them. At this time it was unknown that without a means of preserving an organ when removed from the body, the condition rapidly deteriorated. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/318673/original/file-20200304-66099-zla1yc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/318673/original/file-20200304-66099-zla1yc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/318673/original/file-20200304-66099-zla1yc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/318673/original/file-20200304-66099-zla1yc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/318673/original/file-20200304-66099-zla1yc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/318673/original/file-20200304-66099-zla1yc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/318673/original/file-20200304-66099-zla1yc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A heart transplant operation in progress.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://wellcomecollection.org/works/hvvxuq36">© Wellcome Collection</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>And so the science of organ preservation is fundamental to today’s success. This has its origins in the late 18th century, at the time of the French Revolution, when scientists sought to identify the parts of the brain and body that were essential for maintaining life.</p>
<p>Julien Jean Cesar le Gallois, a French physiologist born in 1770, carried out a series of experiments in which he injected blood back into severed heads, limbs and organs to see whether they could be revived. His work was followed in 1887 by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles-%C3%89douard_Brown-S%C3%A9quard">Jean-Baptiste Vincent Laborde</a>’s gruesome attempt to revive the head of a guillotined prisoner with fresh blood. Needless to say, this wasn’t successful. In his second attempt, he claimed to have kept the head alive for a full minute, although – unsurprisingly - the prisoner never regained consciousness after the execution. </p>
<p>Grisly as these early experiments were, they laid the foundation of our understanding of the role of individual organs and the idea of keeping them “alive” in isolation by reinstating the blood flow.</p>
<h2>Staying alive</h2>
<p>In the 20th century, the French surgeon and biologist <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Alexis-Carrel">Alexis Carrel</a> further advanced the science of organ preservation. Much of his work focused on keeping tissues and organs alive outside the body, but he was a controversial figure, believing that it was possible to select elite individuals and make them immortal. </p>
<p>In the early 1900s, together with the famous American aviator and engineer Charles Lindbergh, he designed the <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/save-his-dying-sister-law-charles-lindbergh-Invented-medical-device-180956526/">perfusion pump</a>: a device made out of a series of glass chambers that was able to preserve organs at normal and low temperatures. By using this device to pump warm blood serum through organs – “perfusing” them – they were able to keep them “alive” outside the body for hours at a time. </p>
<p>Carrel fell from favour at the time of world war two and his work stopped abruptly. But his research was the basis for the design and development of modern preservation techniques and the equipment used for cardiopulmonary bypass surgery.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/318676/original/file-20200304-66112-10r0jch.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/318676/original/file-20200304-66112-10r0jch.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=540&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/318676/original/file-20200304-66112-10r0jch.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=540&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/318676/original/file-20200304-66112-10r0jch.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=540&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/318676/original/file-20200304-66112-10r0jch.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=679&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/318676/original/file-20200304-66112-10r0jch.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=679&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/318676/original/file-20200304-66112-10r0jch.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=679&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A portrait of Dr. Carrel, February 1914.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://wellcomecollection.org/works/hkafgd2v">© Wellcome Collection</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Before the development of modern preservation techniques, surgical teams in the early 1960s would travel with the recipient to the donor hospital to ensure that the time between organ removal from the donor and implantation was at a minimum. This meant that the ability to preserve an organ outside the body would be groundbreaking, enabling establishment of successful transplant programmes of living and deceased donors. </p>
<p>In the late 1960s, American surgeon Folkert Belzer was the first to develop a machine that allowed organs to be perfused at low temperatures. He was able to keep dog kidneys viable for up to three days with a plasma-based solution. Belzer developed a portable system to allow the transport of organs, but the machine was cumbersome and heavy, requiring a specially adapted van equipped with a tail lift. As the success of organ transplantation grew, it was clear that simpler methods were needed.</p>
<p>Despite Carrel’s earlier work on warm perfusion, the focus at the time was still firmly on preservation at low temperatures. Organs could be preserved for longer at such temperatures, providing a window in which to transport the organ from the donor to the recipient centre. The Australian surgeon Geoffrey Collins was the first to introduce the technique of <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/medicine-and-dentistry/collins-solution">packing organs in ice</a> – static cold storage – requiring only a preservation solution designed to prevent cellular damage and an ice box. Organs could be preserved in this way for up to 24 hours. </p>
<p>Then in the 1980s, the English surgeon Neville Jamieson, along with the American scientist James Southard and Belzer, developed a preservation medium called the <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/pharmacology-toxicology-and-pharmaceutical-science/university-of-wisconsin-solution">University of Wisconsin solution</a> designed to maintain the organ at a low temperature. This remains the gold standard solution used in transplantation today. </p>
<h2>A bright future</h2>
<p>Over the past 60 years, transplantation has evolved considerably. New surgical techniques have been adopted to increase the number of living donor transplants. One of the most successful aspects has been the introduction in 1995 of <a href="https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg14719941-600-keyhole-transplant/">keyhole surgery</a> for living kidney donation by Lloyd Ratner at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. Traditionally the operation was performed by making a large incision in the patient’s side, which took many weeks to recover from. Nowadays, patients are commonly discharged two days after donation.</p>
<p>The way we preserve organs is also changing, driven by the need to reduce the transplant waiting lists and improve the quality of available organs. Revisiting the theories of le Gallois and Carrel, over the past 15 years there has been renewed interest in <a href="https://www.statnews.com/2018/04/18/lung-transplant-technology/">warm preservation techniques</a>. Maintaining circulation at normal or near-normal body temperature after the organ has been removed from the donor using specially adapted machines is becoming <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-46877687">common practice</a> in a number of transplant centres across the world.</p>
<p>Organs are perfused with blood-based solutions and provided with supplements and nutrients to support metabolism. This has been particularly beneficial in allowing function to be assessed in order to determine suitability for transplantation. Organs are routinely maintained in this way for a number of hours. Remarkably, in the past few months – January 2020 – <a href="https://phys.org/news/2020-01-device-human-livers-alive-week.html">scientists succeeded</a> in maintaining livers for seven days using warm perfusion.</p>
<p>So, perhaps le Gallois’ dream of “maintaining any part of the body alive indefinitely” is becoming closer to reality. What is in no doubt is that the field of transplantation has a bright future, building on the work of those early physicians and pioneering surgeons.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/132997/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael Nicholson receives funding from the NIHR and the Stoneygate Trust. The authors are giving a talk on the topic of this article on March 12 as part of Cambridge Science Festival. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sarah Hosgood does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Grisly early experiments laid the foundation of our understanding of how to keep organs ‘alive’ in isolation.
Michael Nicholson, Professor of Transplant Surgery, University of Cambridge
Sarah Hosgood, Senior Research Associate in Surgery, University of Cambridge
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/128333
2019-12-13T06:47:15Z
2019-12-13T06:47:15Z
Politics and fashion: the rise of the red beret
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/305224/original/file-20191204-70155-1ub9nk9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Ugandan opposition politician Bobi Wine takes a selfie with Zimbabwe's opposition leader Nelson Chamisa </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Aaron Ufumeli/EPA-EFE</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="https://theconversation.com/uganda-who-is-bobi-wine-and-why-is-he-creating-such-a-fuss-102138">Bobi Wine</a> has come a long way in two years. The self-styled “<a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-africa-49204562/bobi-wine-on-the-road-with-uganda-s-ghetto-president">Ghetto President</a>” of Uganda used to be a music star, playing politically charged reggae beats to packed houses. In 2017, the politics took over. </p>
<p>Donning a red beret, he formed the <a href="https://twitter.com/people_power_ug?lang=en">People Power movement</a>, running a successful grassroots campaign to be elected as a parliamentary representative. Now, he’s challenging <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2013/01/02/world/africa/yoweri-museveni---fast-facts/index.html">Yoweri Museveni</a> for the presidency in 2021.</p>
<p>In two years, Wine’s red beret has become synonymous with a fiery spirit of Ugandan resistance, long since thought to be extinguished after 33 years of <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-museveni-has-twisted-ugandas-constitution-to-cling-to-power-118933">ironclad rule</a> by Museveni.</p>
<p>In the beret, Wine cannily put the “brand” in “firebrand” across his multiple social media platforms. In response, the regime is turning to unconventional <a href="https://africanarguments.org/2019/10/31/uganda-museveni-big-bobi-wine-problem/">suppression tactics</a>. On September 18, 2019, a <a href="https://www.scribd.com/document/428052967/Updf-Insignia-and-Uniforms-in-Uganda-Gazette#download&from_embed">government gazette</a> listed the red beret as official military attire, effectively <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/09/uganda-bans-red-beret-bobi-wine-signature-headgear-190930150137387.html">banning it</a> from public life.</p>
<h2>Symbolism</h2>
<p>Perhaps fittingly for a time of stark global inequality, red headgear is currently marking global populist movements of all political persuasions. The French Revolution brought us the “<a href="https://www.thoughtco.com/phrygian-cap-bonnet-rouge-1221893">bonnet rouge</a>” and red is historically synonymous with <a href="https://theconversation.com/red-state-blue-state-how-colors-took-sides-in-politics-93541">leftist politics</a>. But <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/13/fashion/trumps-campaign-hat-becomes-an-ironic-summer-accessory.html">red baseball caps</a> famously heralded the 2016 US election of Trump in a rustbelt resurgence.</p>
<p>South Africa has its own version of working-class red: the <a href="https://twitter.com/EFFSouthAfrica?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor">Economic Freedom Fighters</a>. The opposition party’s trademark red beret forms part of a trio of headgear including the wrap and hard hat. Within weeks of the party debuting their look, sales skyrocketed. Similarly, Make America Great Again hat sales have soared to <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/washington-secrets/1-million-make-america-great-again-hats-sold">one million</a> in 2019. </p>
<p>A beret may not make a worker’s revolutionary, but it certainly makes a statement. Its history is equal part bohemian artist and militant revolutionary; it’s been worn by everyone from Rembrandt to Robert Mugabe, the Beatniks to the Black Panther movement.</p>
<p>Fittingly, Wine styles himself as both artist and activist, his career as a musician merging seamlessly into his political manifesto. “When we sing ‘Tulivimba mu Uganda empya’ (We shall move with swag in a new Uganda), we summarise what our struggle is about - DIGNITY,” <a href="https://twitter.com/HEBobiwine/status/1191024480417701888">proclaimed Wine</a> in a tweet.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/305221/original/file-20191204-70149-1of3rec.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/305221/original/file-20191204-70149-1of3rec.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/305221/original/file-20191204-70149-1of3rec.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305221/original/file-20191204-70149-1of3rec.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305221/original/file-20191204-70149-1of3rec.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305221/original/file-20191204-70149-1of3rec.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305221/original/file-20191204-70149-1of3rec.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305221/original/file-20191204-70149-1of3rec.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An EFF supporter carries a painting of party leader Julius Malema during an election rally.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">STR/EPA-EFE</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Social media</h2>
<p>Indeed, Wine’s social media presence is key to his success, spreading message and image interchangeably. Using his prolific <a href="https://twitter.com/HEBobiwine">Twitter</a>, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/www.bobiwine.ug/">Facebook </a> and <a href="https://www.instagram.com/bobiwine/?hl=en">Instagram</a> presence, he is relentlessly visual: nearly every update is accompanied by an image of beret-clad supporters. His near daily updates centre less on local rallies than on his <a href="https://time.com/collection/time-100-next-2019/5718843/bobi-wine/">increasingly high profile</a>, Western travel and media coverage. It’s a canny move in a country where 78% of the population is under 35.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/305417/original/file-20191205-39023-cow7ho.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/305417/original/file-20191205-39023-cow7ho.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/305417/original/file-20191205-39023-cow7ho.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305417/original/file-20191205-39023-cow7ho.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305417/original/file-20191205-39023-cow7ho.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305417/original/file-20191205-39023-cow7ho.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305417/original/file-20191205-39023-cow7ho.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305417/original/file-20191205-39023-cow7ho.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Bobi Wine and his red beret made it onto the Next 100 list.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Time magazine</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The Ugandan regime is nothing if not wise to this: on July 1, 2018, the government instigated what was dubbed a <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/uganda-social-media-tax-stays-for-now/">“social media tax”</a>, charging Ugandans 200 shillings (roughly five US cents) a day to use a bouquet of 60 internet applications, including WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. While the price may not seem prohibitive, it still presents a big structural barrier in a country where 41.7% of people were living on <a href="https://databank.worldbank.org/views/reports/reportwidget.aspx?Report_Name=CountryProfile&Id=b450fd57&tbar=y&dd=y&inf=n&zm=n&country=UGA">less than $2 a day</a> in 2018.</p>
<p>“Social media use is definitely a luxury item,” announced Museveni, ironically on his <a href="https://www.yowerikmuseveni.com/blog/museveni/president-responds-feed-back-earlier-statement-new-social-media-and-mobile-money-taxes">personal blog</a>. He continued: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Internet use can sometimes be used for education purposes and research. This should not be taxed. However, using internet to access social media for chatting, recreation, malice, subversion, inciting murder, is definitely a luxury.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The social media tax has added a new twist to Museveni’s suppression tactics. While virtual private networks allow more savvy Ugandan users a way around the problem, others take the hit and pay the price.</p>
<h2>Familiar tactics</h2>
<p>Wine’s tactical use of music and fashion follows Museveni’s own playbook. The Ugandan president released his own popular song in November 2010. </p>
<p>Unlike Wine’s populist reggae, Museveni’s <a href="https://youtu.be/MOHcnrrG1YU">“U Want Another Rap”</a> is mostly sung in Runyankore, a language predominantly spoken in rural areas of the country. Its heavy-handed lyrics emphasise individual resilience, like “harvesters … gave me millet, that I gave to a hen, which gave me an egg, that I gave to children, who gave me a monkey, that I gave to the king, who gave me a cow, that I used to marry my wife.”</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/305427/original/file-20191205-39001-k8f6py.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/305427/original/file-20191205-39001-k8f6py.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/305427/original/file-20191205-39001-k8f6py.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=389&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305427/original/file-20191205-39001-k8f6py.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=389&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305427/original/file-20191205-39001-k8f6py.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=389&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305427/original/file-20191205-39001-k8f6py.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=488&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305427/original/file-20191205-39001-k8f6py.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=488&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305427/original/file-20191205-39001-k8f6py.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=488&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Museveni wears trademark wide-brimmed hat.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mike Hutchins/EPA-EFE</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In line with this folksy approach, Museveni famously favours a wide-brimmed conservative sunhat with leather string. Like Wine’s, the hat is a feature of most leadership portraits. The contrast couldn’t be starker: an old man with a broad-brimmed gardening hat and his young, hip rival in revolutionary red branded beret. </p>
<h2>Practicality</h2>
<p>Against the backdrop of a Ugandan dictatorship that controls media narrative, then, viable opposition needs a boost. Wine’s choice of symbol fits well. Berets are convenient: cheap to produce and impossible to ignore. The splash of red next to the face makes its way into every photograph. Unlike a T-shirt, headgear is easily stashed or discarded during confrontation without immediately signalling a clothing item has been removed.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.rosiefindlay.com/">Dr Rosie Findlay</a>, digital fashion media specialist and author of <a href="https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/lsereviewofbooks/2018/02/15/book-review-personal-style-blogs-appearances-that-fascinate-by-rosie-findlay/">Personal Style Blogs: Appearances that Fascinate</a>, says the fact that the beret is being deployed on social media should not be overlooked. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>The colour pops on the small screen and is immediately recognisable, a literal fashion statement in how its symbolism immediately marks Wine’s image with his politics.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In the face of the banning of the red beret by Museveni, Wine seems <a href="https://af.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idAFKBN1WF1YV?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews">unfazed</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>He thinks it is about the beret - it’s not. This is a symbolisation of the desire for change. People Power is more than a red beret, we are bigger than our symbol.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>With 18 months before the next Ugandan election and two hats in the ring, let us see if revolutionary spectacle can translate into substantial governance.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/305428/original/file-20191205-38997-196sc6h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/305428/original/file-20191205-38997-196sc6h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/305428/original/file-20191205-38997-196sc6h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305428/original/file-20191205-38997-196sc6h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305428/original/file-20191205-38997-196sc6h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305428/original/file-20191205-38997-196sc6h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305428/original/file-20191205-38997-196sc6h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305428/original/file-20191205-38997-196sc6h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">US President Donald Trump holds his famous red cap, a symbol of the rising right.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Michael Reynolds/EPA-EFE</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/128333/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Carla Lever does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Bobi Wine in Uganda does it; so do the Economic Freedom Fighters in South Africa. The red beret is worn to signify the revolutionary. Its power lies in a symbolism that combines art and politics.
Carla Lever, Research Fellow at the Nelson Mandela School of Public Governance, University of Cape Town
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/126505
2019-11-20T19:16:53Z
2019-11-20T19:16:53Z
We live in a world of upheaval. So why aren’t today’s protests leading to revolutions?
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/302595/original/file-20191120-483-1bo38k6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Today's protests are driven more by anger over social and economic inequity than deep-seated grievances against a regime.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Orlando Barria/EPA</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>We live in a world of violent challenges to the status quo, from Chile and Iraq to Hong Kong, Catalonia and the Extinction Rebellion. These protests are usually presented in the media simply as expressions of rage at “the system” and are eminently suitable for TV news coverage, where they flash across our screens in 15-second splashes of colour, smoke and sometimes blood.</p>
<p>These are huge rebellions. In Chile, for example, <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-50191746">an estimated one million people demonstrated last month</a>. By the next day, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/oct/27/chile-hundreds-shot-and-beaten-street-protests">19 people had died</a>, nearly 2,500 had been injured and more than 2,800 arrested.</p>
<p>How might we make sense of these upheavals? Are they revolutionary or just a series of spectacular eruptions of anger? And are they doomed to fail?</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/302608/original/file-20191120-491-yv7hat.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/302608/original/file-20191120-491-yv7hat.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/302608/original/file-20191120-491-yv7hat.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/302608/original/file-20191120-491-yv7hat.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/302608/original/file-20191120-491-yv7hat.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=515&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/302608/original/file-20191120-491-yv7hat.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=515&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/302608/original/file-20191120-491-yv7hat.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=515&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Iraq’s protests have been the bloodiest of anywhere in the world in recent months, with more than 300 confirmed dead.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Ahmed Jalil/EPA</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Key characteristics of a revolution</h2>
<p>As an historian of the French Revolution of 1789-99, I often ponder the similarities between the five great revolutions of the modern world – the English Revolution (1649), American Revolution (1776), French Revolution (1789), Russian Revolution (1917) and Chinese Revolution (1949). </p>
<p>A key question today is whether the rebellions we are currently witnessing are also revolutionary. </p>
<p>A model of revolution drawn from the five great revolutions can tell us much about why they occur and take particular trajectories. The key characteristics are:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>long-term causes and the popularity of a socio-political ideology at odds with the regime in power</p></li>
<li><p>short-term triggers of widespread protest</p></li>
<li><p>moments of violent confrontation the power-holders are unable to contain as sections of the armed forces defect to rebels</p></li>
<li><p>the consolidation of a broad and victorious alliance against the existing regime</p></li>
<li><p>a subsequent fracturing of the revolutionary alliance as competing factions vie for power</p></li>
<li><p>the re-establishment of a new order when a revolutionary leader succeeds in consolidating power.</p></li>
</ul>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/302603/original/file-20191120-479-1ohks55.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/302603/original/file-20191120-479-1ohks55.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/302603/original/file-20191120-479-1ohks55.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/302603/original/file-20191120-479-1ohks55.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/302603/original/file-20191120-479-1ohks55.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/302603/original/file-20191120-479-1ohks55.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/302603/original/file-20191120-479-1ohks55.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Hong Kongers have been protesting for six months, seeking universal suffrage and an inquiry into alleged police brutality, among other demands.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Fazry Ismail/EPA</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Why today’s protests are not revolutionary</h2>
<p>This model indicates the upheavals in our contemporary world are not revolutionary – or not yet. </p>
<p>The most likely to become revolutionary is in Iraq, where the regime has shown a willingness to kill its own citizens (<a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2019/11/09/middleeast/iraq-protest-death-toll-intl/index.html">more than 300 in October alone</a>). This indicates that any concessions to demonstrators will inevitably be regarded as inadequate. </p>
<p>We do not know how the <a href="https://theconversation.com/university-under-siege-a-dangerous-new-phase-for-the-hong-kong-protests-127228">extraordinary rebellion in Hong Kong</a> will end, but it may be very telling that there does not seem to have been significant defection from the police or army to the protest movement.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/is-there-hope-for-a-hong-kong-revolution-127292">Is there hope for a Hong Kong revolution?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>People grow angry far more often than they rebel. And rebellions rarely become revolutions. </p>
<p>So, we need to distinguish between major revolutions that transform social and political structures, coups by armed elites and common forms of protest over particular issues. An example of this is the massive, violent and ultimately successful protests in Ecuador last month that <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/oct/14/ecuador-protests-end-after-deal-struck-with-indigenous-leaders">forced the government to cancel an austerity package</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/302604/original/file-20191120-554-dputgp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/302604/original/file-20191120-554-dputgp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/302604/original/file-20191120-554-dputgp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/302604/original/file-20191120-554-dputgp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/302604/original/file-20191120-554-dputgp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/302604/original/file-20191120-554-dputgp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/302604/original/file-20191120-554-dputgp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Ecuadoreans began protesting in October when an executive decree came into effect that eliminated the subsidy on the price of gasoline.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Paolo Aguilar/EPA</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The protests in Hong Kong and Catalonia fall into yet another category: they have limited aims for political sovereignty rather than more general objectives. </p>
<p>All successful revolutions are characterised by broad alliances at the outset as the deep-seated grievances of a range of social groups coalesce around opposition to the existing regime. </p>
<p>They begin with mass support. For that reason, the Extinction Rebellion will likely only succeed with modest goals of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/oct/06/how-extinction-rebellion-put-world-on-red-alert-year-since-it-was-founded">pushing reluctant governments</a> to do more about climate change, rather than its <a href="https://rebellion.earth/the-truth/faqs/">far more ambitious aspirations</a> of </p>
<blockquote>
<p>a national Citizen Assembly, populated by ordinary people chosen at random, to come up with a programme for change.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Mass protests also fail when they are unable to create unity around core objectives. The Arab Spring, for instance, held so much promise after blossoming in 2010, but with the possible exception of <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/tunisia-the-arab-springs-sole-democracy-chooses-a-new-president/2019/09/15/254ea046-d3d2-11e9-8924-1db7dac797fb_story.html">Tunisia</a>, failed to lead to meaningful change. </p>
<p>Revolutionary alliances collapsed rapidly into civil war (as in Libya) or failed to neutralise the armed forces (as in Egypt and Syria).</p>
<h2>Why is there so much anger?</h2>
<p>Fundamental to an understanding of the rage so evident today is the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/democratic-deficit">“democratic deficit”</a>. This refers to public anger at the way the high-water mark of democratic reform around the globe in the 1990s – accompanied by the siren song of economic globalisation – has had such uneven social outcomes.</p>
<p>One expression of this anger has been the rise of fearful xenophobia expertly captured by populist politicians, most famously in the case of Donald Trump, but including many others from Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil to Rodrigo Duterte in the Philippines and Victor Orbán in Hungary. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-joker-to-guy-fawkes-why-protesters-around-the-world-are-wearing-the-same-masks-126458">The Joker to Guy Fawkes: why protesters around the world are wearing the same masks</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Indeed, there are some who claim that <a href="https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/308/308740/the-light-that-failed/9780241345702.html">western liberalism has now failed</a>).</p>
<p>Elsewhere, the anger is popular rather than populist. In upheavals from Lebanon and Iraq to Zimbabwe and Chile, resentment is particularly focused on the evidence of widespread corruption as elites flout the basic norms of transparency and equity in siphoning government money into their pockets and those of their cronies.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/302605/original/file-20191120-515-1mz91c7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/302605/original/file-20191120-515-1mz91c7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/302605/original/file-20191120-515-1mz91c7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/302605/original/file-20191120-515-1mz91c7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/302605/original/file-20191120-515-1mz91c7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/302605/original/file-20191120-515-1mz91c7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/302605/original/file-20191120-515-1mz91c7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Protesters in Lebanon were initially angry over the crumbling economy and corruption, but have since called for an entirely new political system.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wael Hamzeh/EPA</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The broader context of today’s upheavals also includes the uneven withdrawal of the US from international engagement, providing new opportunities for two authoritarian superpowers (Russia and China) driven by dreams of new empires. </p>
<p>The United Nations, meanwhile, is floundering in its attempt to provide alternative leadership through a rules-based international system. </p>
<p>The state of the world economy also plays a role. In places where economic growth is stagnant, minor price increases are more than just irritants. They explode into rebellions, such as the <a href="https://www.pri.org/stories/2019-10-24/how-lebanons-whatsapp-tax-unleashed-flood-anger">recent tax on WhatsApp in Lebanon</a> and the <a href="https://www.vox.com/world/2019/10/29/20938402/santiago-chile-protests-2019-riots-metro-fare-pinera">metro fare rise in Chile</a>. </p>
<p>There was already deep-seated anger in both places. Chile, for example, is one of Latin America’s wealthiest countries, but has one of the <a href="https://data.oecd.org/inequality/income-inequality.htm">worst levels of income equality</a> among the 36 nations in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. </p>
<h2>Rebellions with new characteristics</h2>
<p>Of course, we do not know how these protest movements will end. While it is unlikely any of the rebellions will result in revolutionary change, we are witnessing distinctly 21st century upheavals with new characteristics.</p>
<p>One of the most influential approaches to understanding the long-term history and nature of protest and insurrection has come from the American sociologist <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/44583132?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">Charles Tilly</a>. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/animal-rights-activists-in-melbourne-green-collar-criminals-or-civil-disobedients-115119">Animal rights activists in Melbourne: green-collar criminals or civil 'disobedients'?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Tilly’s studies of European history have identified two key characteristics. </p>
<p>First, forms of protest change across time as a function of wider changes in economic and political structures. The food riots of pre-industrial society, for instance, gave way to the strikes and political demonstrations of the modern world.</p>
<p>And today, the transnational reach of Extinction Rebellion is symptomatic of a new global age. There are also new protest tactics emerging, such as the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/oct/13/hong-kong-protesters-flashmobs-blossom-everywhere">flashmobs and Lennon walls in Hong Kong</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/302606/original/file-20191120-515-1pv8l9j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/302606/original/file-20191120-515-1pv8l9j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/302606/original/file-20191120-515-1pv8l9j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/302606/original/file-20191120-515-1pv8l9j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/302606/original/file-20191120-515-1pv8l9j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/302606/original/file-20191120-515-1pv8l9j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/302606/original/file-20191120-515-1pv8l9j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Extinction Rebellion movement has organised climate change protests in scores of cities, including across Australia.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Bianca de Marchi/AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Tilly’s second theory was that collective protest, both peaceful and violent, is endemic rather than confined to years of spectacular revolutionary upheaval, such as 1789 or 1917. It is a continuing expression of conflict between “contenders” for power, including the state. It is part of the historical fabric of all societies. </p>
<p>Even in a stable and prosperous country like Australia in 2019, there is a deep cynicism around a commitment to the common good. This has been created by a lack of clear leadership on climate change and energy policy, self-serving corporate governance and fortress politics. </p>
<p>All this suggests that Prime Minister Scott Morrison is not only whistling in the wind if he thinks that <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/nov/01/scott-morrison-threatens-crackdown-on-secondary-boycotts-of-mining-companies">he can dictate the nature of and even reduce protest</a> in contemporary Australia – he is also <a href="https://researchers.mq.edu.au/en/publications/activist-wisdom-practical-knowledge-and-creative-tension-in-socia">ignorant of its history</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/126505/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Peter McPhee does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
People get angry far more often than they rebel. And rebellions rarely become revolutions. An expert on the French Revolution explains why today’s protest movements are different.
Peter McPhee, Emeritus professor, The University of Melbourne
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/127292
2019-11-19T14:05:23Z
2019-11-19T14:05:23Z
Is there hope for a Hong Kong revolution?
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/302257/original/file-20191118-66953-ss5fu8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C3087%2C2080&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Hong Kong protesters shelter behind a thin barrier – and umbrellas – as police fire tear gas and encircle a group of demonstrators.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/APTOPIX-Hong-Kong-Protests/b49d0d929bad4345b182403dff51aedc/2/0">AP Photo/Vincent Yu</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Hong Kong may seem like an unlikely place for a revolution. In this relatively affluent and privileged city, young people might be expected to be more concerned with making money than with protesting in the streets. Yet day after day, demonstrators in Hong Kong <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/hong-kong-protesters-make-last-stand-as-police-close-in-on-besieged-university/2019/11/18/7f614012-09c8-11ea-8054-289aef6e38a3_story.html">risk injury and death</a> confronting security forces backed by the massive power of the Chinese government.</p>
<p><a href="https://yp.scmp.com/hongkongprotests5demands">Among their demands</a> are democratic elections for the city’s Legislative Council and chief executive. Their desire for fundamental change has mounted, and they increasingly <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/i-will-die-with-the-city-a-young-womans-chilling-message-from-hong-kongs-front-lines/2019/10/24/9f51a35e-f0b3-11e9-bb7e-d2026ee0c199_story.html">see their own lives as lacking meaning</a> unless circumstances change.</p>
<p>Historians have long argued that revolutions are built not on deep misery but on rising expectations. Since the 18th century, societies, clubs and associations of intellectuals have been seedbeds of radical change in countries throughout the world. They provided <a href="https://academic.oup.com/jsh/article/52/3/545/5159508">leadership for the French Revolution</a> in 1789, the <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/1848-the-revolution-of-the-intellectuals-9780197261118?cc=us&lang=en&">European revolutions of 1848</a> and the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Russian-Revolution-of-1905">Russian Revolution of 1905</a>.</p>
<p>The situation in Hong Kong is revolutionary, too, although the history of past revolutions may not provide much hope of immediate change.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/302260/original/file-20191118-66957-rxk169.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/302260/original/file-20191118-66957-rxk169.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/302260/original/file-20191118-66957-rxk169.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/302260/original/file-20191118-66957-rxk169.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/302260/original/file-20191118-66957-rxk169.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/302260/original/file-20191118-66957-rxk169.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=525&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/302260/original/file-20191118-66957-rxk169.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=525&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/302260/original/file-20191118-66957-rxk169.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=525&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A view of the Hungarian Revolution before the Soviet tanks rolled in.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:1956_Gabor_B._Racz_Hungarian_Revolution.jpg">Gabor B. Racz/Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A look at Hungary</h2>
<p>The most compelling parallel to Hong Kong may be the <a href="https://time.com/3878232/the-hungarian-revolution-of-1956-photos-from-the-streets-of-budapest/">Hungarian Revolution of 1956</a>, which attempted to <a href="http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/hungarianrevolution.htm">wrest power</a> from a communist regime. It, too, <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/5379586.stm">began with a student uprising</a> in favor of democratic elections.</p>
<p>Within a few days, the communist government resigned and a reformist administration was formed under <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Imre-Nagy">Imre Nagy</a>, who allowed noncommunists to enter political office. This went too far for communist leaders in the Soviet Union. The USSR invaded Hungary, <a href="https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/soviets-put-brutal-end-to-hungarian-revolution">overthrew Nagy’s regime</a> and secretly put him to death. </p>
<p>As with the Hong Kong protests today, the <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20191118164342/https://2001-2009.state.gov/r/pa/ho/time/lw/107186.htm">United States gave little official support</a> to the Hungarian Revolution and was unwilling to offer material assistance. Keeping peace in Europe was of vital importance to U.S. policy in 1956, just as <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/03/world/asia/hong-kong-protesters-call-for-us-help-china-sees-a-conspiracy.html">good relations with China</a> are now central.</p>
<p>The Hungarian example may provide little solace to the Hong Kong protesters – except, perhaps, if they consider its long-term consequences. </p>
<p>In October 1989, with Soviet influence in Eastern Europe collapsing, the democratic Republic of Hungary was declared on the 33rd anniversary of the 1956 revolution. Those who died during that revolution are now <a href="https://year1989.pl/y89/hungary/history/8697,Hungary.html">remembered as martyrs</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/302263/original/file-20191118-66971-1ivvpxg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/302263/original/file-20191118-66971-1ivvpxg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/302263/original/file-20191118-66971-1ivvpxg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=432&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/302263/original/file-20191118-66971-1ivvpxg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=432&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/302263/original/file-20191118-66971-1ivvpxg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=432&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/302263/original/file-20191118-66971-1ivvpxg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=543&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/302263/original/file-20191118-66971-1ivvpxg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=543&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/302263/original/file-20191118-66971-1ivvpxg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=543&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A contemporary print depicting the battle at the Ta-ping gate at Nanking, part of China’s Revolution of 1911.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:An_episode_in_the_revolutionary_war_in_China,_1911_-_the_battle_at_the_Ta-ping_gate_at_Nanking._Wellcome_L0040002.jpg">T. Miyano, Wellcome Library/Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>In China’s own history</h2>
<p>Chinese history supplies a more heartening example of a successful student-led uprising: the <a href="https://alphahistory.com/chineserevolution/xinhai-1911-revolution/">Revolution of 1911</a>. It was fomented by young men returning from study abroad, who formed political societies to “<a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Revive-Han-Association">revive</a>” their country, often disguised as literary discussion groups.</p>
<p>The 1911 Revolution mobilized networks of intellectuals and students throughout China, but it also drew on other social groups: military officers, merchants, coal miners and farmers. The revolution erupted in many parts of China simultaneously and <a href="https://www.economist.com/asia/2011/10/08/from-sun-to-mao-to-now">had various outcomes</a>, from utter failure, to the massacre of ethnic Manchus to declarations of Mongol and Tibetan independence. A provisional government emerged by the end of the year in Nanjing.</p>
<p>The Hong Kong protests, however, are too limited in geographical scope and social support to repeat the success of the 1911 revolutionaries.</p>
<p>The subsequent Chinese revolution in 1949, like the 1917 Russian Revolution, <a href="https://www.marxists.org/history/erol/uk.hightide/distinguishingfeatures.htm">followed Leninist theory</a> and was spearheaded by professional party insiders, not by intellectuals. The communists regarded mass protests as potentially counter-revolutionary and as threats to the new order.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/302267/original/file-20191118-66917-1gtjnot.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/302267/original/file-20191118-66917-1gtjnot.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/302267/original/file-20191118-66917-1gtjnot.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=390&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/302267/original/file-20191118-66917-1gtjnot.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=390&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/302267/original/file-20191118-66917-1gtjnot.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=390&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/302267/original/file-20191118-66917-1gtjnot.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=490&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/302267/original/file-20191118-66917-1gtjnot.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=490&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/302267/original/file-20191118-66917-1gtjnot.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=490&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">On June 5, 1989, a Chinese man stood alone to block a line of tanks in Tiananmen Square.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/China-70-Years-Mao-to-McDonalds/5ef78baeea4d4a9a9ef519dd3e0cc524/104/0">AP Photo/Jeff Widener</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>What’s next?</h2>
<p>The young protestors in Hong Kong seek to avoid the fate of the student demonstrators of <a href="https://www.history.com/topics/china/tiananmen-square">Tiananmen Square in spring 1989</a>. Three decades ago, hundreds, perhaps thousands, of protesters were massacred after the communist government invoked martial law. The <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-tiananmen-idUSKCN1T3001">pro-democracy agenda of the Tiananmen protesters</a> was vague, and they relied on reformers within the party apparatus, who finally betrayed them.</p>
<p>The Hong Kong crowds are focused on specific changes and lack illusions about the party. They will go down fighting desperately, not <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/tank-man-the-picture-that-almost-wasnt/">standing with faint hope in front of tanks</a>. That may give pause to the forces of repression. As the Communist Party of China and any student of history knows, martyrs are the fuel of future revolutions.</p>
<p>[ <em>You’re smart and curious about the world. So are The Conversation’s authors and editors.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/weekly-highlights-61?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=weeklysmart">You can get our highlights each weekend</a>. ]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/127292/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Paul Monod does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Revolutions are built not on deep misery but on rising expectations. History may not provide much hope of immediate change in Hong Kong – but protesters may have a longer view.
Paul Monod, Professor of History, Middlebury
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/121034
2019-10-16T11:25:34Z
2019-10-16T11:25:34Z
Why the guillotine may be less cruel than execution by slow poisoning
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/296722/original/file-20191011-96208-ur76yz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Could using the guillotine be more humane than execution by lethal injection?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-illustration/guillotine-bottom-view-against-blue-sky-1323991673">AlexLMX/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Concerns about the drugs used for executions are being raised again after the federal government announced it will once again execute <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/25/us/politics/federal-executions-death-penalty.html">inmates convicted of capital crimes</a> almost 16 years after the last execution was carried out. </p>
<p>International drug companies will no longer sell <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/14/us/pfizer-execution-drugs-lethal-injection.html">drugs for use in lethal injections in the United States</a>. But Attorney General William Barr has authorized the federal justice system to use the widely available drug pentobarbital, <a href="https://news.stlpublicradio.org/post/secret-sedative-how-missouri-uses-pentobarbital-executions#stream/0">despite concerns</a> about whether that method violates the <a href="https://constitutioncenter.org/interactive-constitution/amendment/amendment-viii">Eighth Amendment, which prohibits cruel and unusual punishment</a>. In common use, the drug controls seizures in humans and is often used to euthanize pets.</p>
<p>In 2014, several executions carried out by states with untested methods using a mixture of drugs caused <a href="https://newrepublic.com/article/118833/2014-botched-executions-worst-year-lethal-injection-history">suffering and took hours to end prisoners’ lives</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/296725/original/file-20191011-96226-1bt2zbf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/296725/original/file-20191011-96226-1bt2zbf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/296725/original/file-20191011-96226-1bt2zbf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=378&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/296725/original/file-20191011-96226-1bt2zbf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=378&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/296725/original/file-20191011-96226-1bt2zbf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=378&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/296725/original/file-20191011-96226-1bt2zbf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=475&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/296725/original/file-20191011-96226-1bt2zbf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=475&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/296725/original/file-20191011-96226-1bt2zbf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=475&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">One of the three drugs used in the botched execution of Clayton Lockett in 2014.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Oklahoma-Execution/6cf3cd81b59642029d18d97c84b18c3e/3/0">AP/File photo</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Among them was the <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/06/execution-clayton-lockett/392069/">botched execution of Oklahoma inmate Clayton Lockett</a>, who thrashed around in pain for 43 minutes before dying, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/03/us/flawed-oklahoma-execution-deeply-troubling-obama-says.html">prompted President Obama to call for a moratorium</a> on the death penalty for federal inmates.</p>
<p>While the death penalty is the ultimate punishment meted out by the state, it is not meant to be torture. </p>
<p>From the stake to the rope to the firing squad to the electric chair to the gas chamber and, finally, to the lethal injection, over the centuries the methods of execution in the United States have evolved to make execution <a href="https://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2636&context=ulj">quicker, quieter and less painful</a>, both physically and psychologically.</p>
<p>It wasn’t always so. And there are, perhaps, lessons in history that could provide an answer to current concerns about the unusual cruelty of execution methods in the U.S.</p>
<h2>Spectacles of physical torment</h2>
<p>Under the French monarchy in the 17th and 18th centuries, execution was meant to be painful. That would purify the soul of the condemned before his final judgment, deter others from committing crime, and showcase the power of the king to <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/seeing-justice-done-9780199592692?q=Paul%20Friedland&lang=en&cc=us">impose unbearable suffering on his subjects</a>. </p>
<p>Public executions were spectacles that were part public holiday, part grim warning. Crowds gathered to watch the prisoner endure physical torments almost <a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/discipline-and-punish-the-birth-of-the-prison/oclc/32367111">too dreadful to imagine</a>: hot pokers, boiling lead poured into wounds, dismembering hooks, and of course, the horses readied to draw and quarter.</p>
<p>Not everybody suffered so terribly, however. This parade of horrors was the fate of commoners. For nobles, a quick, relatively painless, and more <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/seeing-justice-done-9780199592692?q=Paul%20Friedland&lang=en&cc=us">dignified beheading replaced an hours-long public display</a>. </p>
<p>One of the many goals of the French Revolution, which took place from 1789 to 1815, was to level society, to take away the <a href="https://www-jstor-org.proxy.lib.wayne.edu/stable/744131">privileges</a> of the nobility, who lorded over commoners.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/296730/original/file-20191011-96208-icavr9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/296730/original/file-20191011-96208-icavr9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/296730/original/file-20191011-96208-icavr9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=353&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/296730/original/file-20191011-96208-icavr9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=353&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/296730/original/file-20191011-96208-icavr9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=353&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/296730/original/file-20191011-96208-icavr9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=444&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/296730/original/file-20191011-96208-icavr9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=444&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/296730/original/file-20191011-96208-icavr9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=444&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Execution by guillotine in France, 1793.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reign_of_Terror#/media/File:Octobre_1793,_supplice_de_9_%C3%A9migr%C3%A9s.jpg">La Guillotine en 1793 by H. Fleischmann (1908), Wikimedia</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Medium is the message</h2>
<p>The solution to disparate forms of execution and social equality was first presented to the French National Assembly on Oct. 10, 1789 by Dr. Joseph Guillotin, who presented plans for a <a href="https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k5788381v">bladed machine to execute criminals</a>. </p>
<p>It would be easy to use, work quickly and offer the same treatment to all condemned, regardless of social standing. His ideas finally became law in March 1791 and the guillotine was used for an execution the following year. </p>
<p>The so-called “<a href="https://www.themorgan.org/blog/national-razor-collecting-heads-french-revolution">national razor</a>” took off the heads of the royal family as well as the humblest thief. It leveled bodies and society, with all citizens subject to the same punishment. And it ended the capricious torment of the condemned by the monarchy as well as the privilege that nobles had, even regarding the manner of their deaths. </p>
<p>The guillotine was a killing machine that provided not just a convenient method of execution but the proper political and ideological message for the Revolution.</p>
<h2>Less cruel and unusual?</h2>
<p>Eventually, the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/French-Revolution">French Revolution became more politically radical</a>, moving from a system where the king would continue to govern within a constitutional system to a republic where the people’s representatives would wield political power to a de facto dictatorship. As the Revolution became more radical, and politicians saw plots everywhere, increasing numbers of citizens were sentenced to death.</p>
<p>With the need to execute many prisoners the guillotine was pressed into greater use. The most careful estimate for the number of French executed during the Terror, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Reign-of-Terror">the height of the radical Revolution, was 17,000</a>. This number included almost exclusively those charged with political crimes. </p>
<p>It was the guillotine’s plummeting blade that took off head after head with just a bit of cleaning and sharpening in between, answering the need of the moment. <a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/terror-the-shadow-of-the-guillotine-france-1792-1794/oclc/70335347">Thus it came to symbolize state terrorism</a> but also <a href="https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781466849310">swift and equal justice</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/296723/original/file-20191011-96262-1iirn2w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/296723/original/file-20191011-96262-1iirn2w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/296723/original/file-20191011-96262-1iirn2w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=455&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/296723/original/file-20191011-96262-1iirn2w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=455&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/296723/original/file-20191011-96262-1iirn2w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=455&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/296723/original/file-20191011-96262-1iirn2w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=572&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/296723/original/file-20191011-96262-1iirn2w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=572&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/296723/original/file-20191011-96262-1iirn2w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=572&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The guillotine remained in use in France well into the 20th century. Here, workmen in the Sante Prison clean and dismantle a guillotine in Paris on May 25, 1946, after the execution of Dr. Marcel Petiot, who was convicted of mass murder during World War II.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Associated-Press-International-News-France-PETI-/79a8c39394e6da11af9f0014c2589dfb/140/0">AP</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Terrifying – but brief</h2>
<p>The guillotine remains a quick method of execution – it takes about half a second for the blade to drop and sever a prisoner’s head from his body.</p>
<p>While the moment of execution could be nothing but terrifying, that second of suffering was brief in comparison to the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/apr/30/clayton-lockett-oklahoma-execution-witness">43 minutes it took for Lockett to die</a> after lethal drugs were administered. </p>
<p>In the same year, 2014, convicted double murderer <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2014/07/23/arizona-supreme-court-stays-planned-execution/">Joseph Rudolph Wood of Arizona suffered</a> for two hours before succumbing to the jerry-built drug cocktail dreamed up in a warden’s office. In 2018, an <a href="https://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/story/news/2018/03/05/execution-attempt-so-painful-inmate-hoped-get-over-report-states/397304002/">Alabama execution had to be halted</a> after 12 attempts to place an IV line in Doyle Hamm failed. </p>
<p>The current technology of execution does not <a href="https://law.justia.com/constitution/us/amendment-08/09-methods-of-execution.html">reliably provide the humane death demanded by the Constitution</a>. In requiring an IV line and medical personnel to administer drugs it also involves medical practice with the death penalty.</p>
<p>Although the guillotine may be the <a href="https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2018/04/06/the-bloody-family-history-of-the-guillotine/">bloodiest of deaths</a> – the French used sand bags to soak up the blood – it does not cause the prolonged physical torment increasingly delivered by lethal injections.</p>
<p>Should the U.S. consider using the guillotine to administer capital punishment? </p>
<p>It has advantages – no secret recipes for lethal injections, no botched placement of IV needles, no conflation of medicine and execution.</p>
<p>While the guillotine provides a death that is not easy to witness, the death it delivers to the condemned is quick and does not cause the extended pain of bespoke lethal injections. </p>
<p>Could such a death, as bloody as it is, pass muster with the Eighth Amendment’s mandate against cruel and unusual punishment?</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/121034/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Janine Lanza does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Many recent executions in the US by lethal injections have resulted in prolonged suffering before death. A historian asks: Could the guillotine be a preferable method?
Janine Lanza, Associate Professor of History, Wayne State University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/115734
2019-04-18T14:42:49Z
2019-04-18T14:42:49Z
Notre Dame: the public and private lives of France’s spiritual home
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/269989/original/file-20190418-28119-ue5z72.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C4%2C998%2C655&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Seine and Notre Dame, physically and spiritually the heart of Paris.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Iakov Kalinin via Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>While flames engulfed Notre Dame on the evening of April 15 and the world watched in despair, French president Emmanuel Macron <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/bcd5aa90-5fc9-11e9-a27a-fdd51850994c">told news cameras</a> that the Paris cathedral was part of the history of all French people: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>It is our history, our literature, our imagination, the place where we have lived our great moments … it is the epicentre of our life.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Macron hit the mark in more ways than one. Certainly, since its first stone was laid in 1163, Notre Dame has witnessed a great many of France’s iconic moments. It was, after all, the church of the country’s medieval kings long before the royal court moved out to Versailles in the 17th century.</p>
<p>In 1558, it witnessed the marriage of Mary Queen of Scots to the Dauphin, soon to be King François II. In 1804, Napoleon Bonaparte crowned himself emperor there. And, on August 26 1944, the towering frame of general Charles de Gaulle strode triumphantly down the aisle for a thanksgiving service on the liberation of Paris from Nazi occupation – having braved snipers on the way.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/269996/original/file-20190418-28103-1hevo6t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/269996/original/file-20190418-28103-1hevo6t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=430&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269996/original/file-20190418-28103-1hevo6t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=430&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269996/original/file-20190418-28103-1hevo6t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=430&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269996/original/file-20190418-28103-1hevo6t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=540&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269996/original/file-20190418-28103-1hevo6t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=540&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269996/original/file-20190418-28103-1hevo6t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=540&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Napoleon Bonaparte crowning himself emperor in Notre Dame, December 1804.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jacques-Louis David and Georges Rouget</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Notre Dame is one of the country’s “lieux de mémoire”, a “realm of memory”, to use <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/2928520">historian Pierre Nora’s term</a>; a place where historical memory is embedded and commemorated.</p>
<h2>Secret lives</h2>
<p>All buildings have their “secret lives” – a topic that Edward Hollis explores in his brilliant book with that very title. One of the cathedral’s secret lives was its part in the “culture war” that bitterly divided France after the Revolution of 1789. The Revolution was not only a frontal assault on hereditary privilege, seigneurialism and the monarchy – it also developed into an attack on the Catholic church, and Notre Dame was one of the most important sites of this conflict. </p>
<p>In the autumn of 1793, as the Terror gathered pace, the firebrands who dominated Paris’ municipal government ordered the removal of the statues that lined Notre Dame’s façade above its great doors.</p>
<p>These, it was proclaimed, were “the gothic simulacra of the Kings of France” (in fact, they represented the Kings of Judea). As the iconoclasm swept through the city, the interior of the cathedral was gutted: all religious images, statues, effigies, reliquaries and symbols were stripped out until all that remained was a bare shell of masonry and timber. The cathedral’s bells and spire were melted down for their metal.</p>
<p>This was the most serious damage sustained by the cathedral in modern times, until the recent fire, and yet (and here we might take heart) Notre Dame would be restored in the 19th century by Eugène-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc, whose work included the replacement spire that fell so tragically in flames on April 15.</p>
<p>The crescendo of the revolutionary campaign of “dechristianisation” came on November 10, 1793 when Notre Dame – renamed the “Temple of Reason” – played host to a secular, atheist festival to the triumph of human reason over religion and superstition. The French Revolution left a legacy of cultural and political division between, on the one hand, the Republic, the secular and visions of a democratic, rights-based order, and, on the other hand, the Church, the sacred and memories of the old monarchy.</p>
<h2>Crisis of faith</h2>
<p>Napoleon Bonaparte papered over the chasm in 1801 by signing a Concordat – an agreement with the Pope, whereby he pragmatically recognised Catholicism as the religion of the “great majority of French citizens”. This was a clever formula that was both a statement of fact and left room for other faiths. In return, the Pope accepted many of the reforms of the Revolution and Notre Dame was returned to the Church in April 1802. </p>
<p>Despite this compromise, friction continued between the church and the state as the political pendulum swung back and forth over the course of the 19th century. Education was a particularly contentious battleground, as both sides fought to win the hearts and minds of the younger generations.</p>
<p>From this conflict sprang the republican principle of “laïcité”. While French people of all races and creeds were free to practice their beliefs as private individuals, in their contacts with the state, particularly in schools, they were meant to be equal citizens abiding by the same laws and adhering to the same, universal, republican values.</p>
<p>Notre-Dame was given a role in this – if only in opposition to laïcité. When the Eiffel Tower was opened in 1889 for the Universal Exposition, itself commemorating the centenary of the French Revolution, it was heralded by republicans as a triumph of human reason, science and progress over faith and superstition. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/269988/original/file-20190418-28087-pyt7es.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/269988/original/file-20190418-28087-pyt7es.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269988/original/file-20190418-28087-pyt7es.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269988/original/file-20190418-28087-pyt7es.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269988/original/file-20190418-28087-pyt7es.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269988/original/file-20190418-28087-pyt7es.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269988/original/file-20190418-28087-pyt7es.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Two of Notre Dame’s oldest inhabitants enjoying the view of the Eiffel Tower.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Neirfy via Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The French diplomat and travel-writer <a href="https://www.revolvy.com/page/Eug%C3%A8ne%252DMelchior-de-Vog%C3%BC%C3%A9">Eugène Melchior de Vogüé</a> imagined an argument between Notre Dame and the Eiffel Tower, between the old and the new, between faith and science. The cathedral’s two towers mock Eiffel’s creation:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>You are ugly and empty; we are beautiful and replete with God … Fantasy for a day, you will not last, because you have no soul.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The iron structure retorts: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Old abandoned towers, no one listens to you anymore … You were ignorance; I am knowledge. You keep man enslaved; I free him … I have no more need of your God, invented to explain a creation whose laws I know. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>In 1905, the republicans finally triumphed, formally separating church and state, thereby tearing up Napoleon’s Concordat. Notre Dame itself, along with other ecclesiastical property, was taken over by the government.</p>
<h2>Sacred union</h2>
<p>So Notre Dame is certainly a symbol of France’s past, but not only because of its longevity, its royal associations, its undeniably stunning architecture and its location on the Île de la Cité – the ancient legal, political and ecclesiastical heart of the former kingdom. It also stood as a site – and a symbol – of the culture war: the “Franco-French” conflict between, on the one hand, the country’s monarchist and Catholic traditions and, on the other hand, its revolutionary and republican heritage. These frictions have periodically torn the country apart since 1789. This is its hidden history.</p>
<p>This alone is reason to mourn the damage, because its “secret life” carries lessons for all of us – about the relationship between church and state, faith and reason, the secular and the sacred, about tolerance and intolerance, about the use and abuse of religion and culture.</p>
<p>But happily this is not the full story. In times of national crisis, the French have shown an inspiring capacity to rally together, evoking the “union sacrée”, the unity of wartime in 1914, just as they mobilised around the democratic, republican values in response to the terrorist attacks in 2015. </p>
<p>And Notre Dame has historically played a part in these moments of reconciliation and union. When France emerged from the brutal, sectarian 16th-century strife between Catholics and the Protestant Huguenots – remembered as the Wars of Religion – the Protestant Henri de Navarre, who took the crown as Henri IV, pragmatically decided that: “Paris is well worth a Mass” and converted to Catholicism.</p>
<p>When he rode into the capital in 1594, he immediately took communion in Notre Dame: it was a moment that promised peace between Catholics and Protestants (and four years later, the new king issued the Edict of Nantes, which declared toleration for both faiths). </p>
<p>It was in Notre Dame, too, that the official celebrations of Napoleon’s compromise with the Church, the Concordat, came to a climax on Easter Sunday 1802, with a Mass attended by the entire government of a republic once deemed “Godless”.</p>
<p>In 1944, de Gaulle’s triumphant march to Notre Dame through liberated Paris was a moment of catharsis for French people humiliated by four years of Nazi occupation. And in 1996, the then president Jacques Chirac (also the first French president to make a state visit to the Vatican) helped to arrange a Requiem Mass for his agnostic predecessor, François Mitterand.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/269991/original/file-20190418-28103-4s10ix.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/269991/original/file-20190418-28103-4s10ix.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=440&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269991/original/file-20190418-28103-4s10ix.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=440&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269991/original/file-20190418-28103-4s10ix.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=440&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269991/original/file-20190418-28103-4s10ix.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=553&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269991/original/file-20190418-28103-4s10ix.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=553&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269991/original/file-20190418-28103-4s10ix.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=553&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">General Charles de Gaulle marches down the Champs Elysees to Notre Dame for a service of thanksgiving following the city’s liberation in August 1944.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Imperial War Museum</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The gesture – and the subsequent papal visit that same year – certainly <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/historians-battle-over-clovis-first-french-king-1306501.html">elicited protests from people</a>, particularly on the left, who defended a pure form of laïcité. Yet that Chirac, who in other contexts steadfastly defended the Republic’s secularism, could as president do these things suggests how far the boundaries between republicanism and Catholicism have softened. Notre Dame is certainly an appropriate site to reflect on this because it is both state property – and officially designated a “monument historique” as long ago as 1862 – and a fully-functioning church.</p>
<h2>Bridges to build</h2>
<p>This is not to say that there are no bridges still to build, or frictions to resolve – far from it. Recently, controversies over laïcité have revolved around attempts to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/mar/14/headscarves-and-muslim-veil-ban-debate-timeline">ban the hijab, the burka and the burkini</a>, which have stoked fears of racism and of the exclusion of France’s substantial Muslim population. And while there is certainly a dark side to les gilet jaunes, they are no less a symptom of deep economic distress and social malaise.</p>
<p>So when Macron, on first learning of the terrible fire consuming Notre Dame, could tweet that his thoughts were with “all Catholics and for all French people” and that “tonight I am sad to see this part of us burn”, he was – perhaps intentionally – almost using the Napoleonic language of the Concordat. His tweet recognised that not all French people are Catholic, while at the same time stating that the iconic cathedral is the heritage of all citizens regardless of belief. </p>
<p>And indeed the rector of the Paris Grand Mosque, <a href="https://churchpop.com/2019/04/16/french-islamic-leader-calls-for-muslims-to-aid-notre-dame-rebuilding-citing-their-veneration-of-mary/">Dalil Boubakeur</a>, issued a press release as the fire still blazed, saying: “We pray that God might safeguard this monument so precious to our hearts.” </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
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</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>When the reconstruction of Notre Dame begins, the country will be restoring not only a site of its history, but also a symbol of the complexities of that history, complexities that, hopefully, remind us of a capacity for healing, inclusion and unity.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/115734/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael Rapport receives funding from the British Academy and the Leverhulme Trust for his work on Revolutionary Paris. He is a member of Stirling4Europe.</span></em></p>
From coronations to Revolution to reconciliation, Notre Dame has witnessed nearly 900 years of French history.
Michael Rapport, Reader in Modern European History, University of Glasgow
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.