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.
Academic rigour, journalistic flair
Articles on French Revolution
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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.
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?
From coronations to Revolution to reconciliation, Notre Dame has witnessed nearly 900 years of French history.
The Notre Dame Cathedral was long a powerful symbol of church authority - but it wasn't static. The design kept changing to keep up with the changing times.
From the French Revolution to #MeToo, social movements often burst into the mainstream with what seems like little warning. Cass Sunstein explains why.
Terrorism hasn't always been associated with individuals – in the past, it has described violence used by the state against its subjects.
Adélaïde Labille-Guiard was a supremely skilled artist. But like so many talented women before and since, she suffered from snide allegations that she could not be capable of such brilliance.
This frail and often hated woman became a passionate advocate of a woman's place in a democratic society before a tragic episode broke her.
Primary school children in France will now have to learn and sing La Marseillaise. But for many people, it is racist and xenophobic.
Nothing displays the ethical superiority of one’s values better than to treat a foe with the respect due another human being.
Terror on July 14 is a clear rejection of the values of the French Republic.
The excitement that accompanied the beginning of the Arab Spring has now largely died down, as a timeworn truth reiterates itself: when an oppressive power is toppled, a similar or worse one will often…
The release of a documentary film in the Czech Republic earlier this year caused much controversy. It is about a dissident named Pavel Wonka who fought against the totalitarian regime in Communist Czechoslovakia…
It’s there in black and white. Tinged, appropriately enough, with blue. On the inventory – handwritten in Afrikaans – of Mnr N Mandela’s personal Eiendom (property) on leaving Victor Verster prison outside…
Top contributors
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Peter McPhee is a Friend of The Conversation.Emeritus professor, University of Melbourne
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Lecturer, Department of French, University of Cambridge
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Adjunct Professor, Gordon College
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University Professor, Professor of International Relations and History, The Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies, Boston University
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Professor of French Studies, School of Modern Languages, University of Bristol
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Professor of Modern History, University of Portsmouth
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University Professor, Harvard University
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Maitre de conferences en histoire de l'Europe moderne, Université de York, Fellow 2018 - IEA de Paris, Institut d'études avancées de Paris (IEA) – RFIEA
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Visiting Scholar, Max Planck Institute for the History of Science
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Assistant Professor of the History of Art and Architecture, University of Oregon
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Reader in Modern European History, University of Glasgow
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Associate Professor of History, Wayne State University
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Professor of History, Middlebury
