French Revolution Post

The book Politics, Culture, and Class in the French Revolution, by Lynn Hunt,  outlines the causes and factors that led up to the French Revoluion while also addressing political ideologies during the actual Revolution and before the Revolution.  Hunt talks of how the “politics…customs,morals, and religion [were] the root[s] of social life” (1).  This book not only addresses the politics of the Ancien Regime, but it also analyzes social factors, such as mentioned above, morals and customs.  This book also addresses how rhetoric, symbolism, and imagery helped form common ideologies among the French people.  It analyzes how Frenchmen were able to get others to rally around their cause and ideology.  I was unable to read most of the book, however, because it is not provided on google books.

This book explains different ways in which the French Revolution is viewed.  It can be analyzed in a Marxist way or a revisionist way.  In the Marxist interpretation, the French Revolution is viewed as the “appearance, the growth, and the final triumph of the bourgeoisie” (4).  Also, those who use the Marxist interpretation “trace the origins of the French Revolution” to the growth in power of the bourgeoisie.  This book also explains the Revisionist view of that there was “no conscious class conflict between bourgeoisie and aristocracy before the Revolution” (5).  This book is unique in that the author addresses the rhetoric and symbolism used before and during the French Revolution, and how people rallied around a cause due to those factors.  Hunt focuses on the “common values and shared expectations in behavior” of Frenchmen and women and does not focus just on the factors and political environment leading up to the Revolution (10).  Hunt did have a definite argument, that the beginnings of the French Revolution were mainly political, but that politics are heavily influenced by religion, morals, and customs.  She buttressed this argument by showing that through rhetoric and imagery, political ideology was not just a concept, but was made up of tangible ideas that could be understood by many.  She addresses the images of pamphlets, liberty trees, and catechisms.

This book focuses a bit too much on addressing different interpretations of the French Revolution.  Although it is good that the author does address these, she focuses on them too much, describing how different movements and individual people view the French Revolution.  She addresses the various political ideas and ideologies of the French Revolution, but she focuses a lot on examining the rhetoric and symbols in use during the Revolution.  Hunt does a very good job a providing an argument and backing it up, but this book should not be read to learn about the Revolution, since the author analyzes it and does not give much introductory material.  This book should be read in order to see a unique view point, not to learn the facts of the Revolution.