Between 1793 and 1794, thousands of French citizens were imprisoned and hundreds sent to the guillotine by a powerful dictatorship that claimed to be acting in the public interest.
Only a few years earlier, revolutionaries had proclaimed a new era of tolerance, equal justice, and human rights.
How and why did the French Revolution's lofty ideals of liberty, equality, and fraternity descend into violence and terror?``By attending to the role of emotions in propelling the Terror, Tackett steers a more nuanced course than many previous historians have managed.
Imagined terrors, as.
Tackett very usefully reminds us, can have even more political potency than real ones.
``--David A.
Bell, The Atlantic`` Tackett] analyzes the mentalite of those who became 'terrorists' in 18th-century France.
In emphasizing weakness and uncertainty instead of fanatical strength as the driving force behind the Terror, .
Tackett.
contributes to an important realignment in the study of French history.
--Ruth Scurr, The Spectator`` A] boldly conceived and important book.
This is a thought-provoking book that makes a major contribution to our understanding of terror and political intolerance, and also to the history of emotions more generally.
It helps expose the complexity of a revolution that cannot be adequately understood in terms of principles alone.
``--Alan Forrest, Times Literary Supplement.
Belknap Press: An Imprint Of Harvard Universi The coming of the terror in the french revolution, paperback/timothy tackett
