Reactions to the French Revolution

The Revolutionary Government bureaucratised death in the pursuit of a programme of virtue.”

A seminal year in France, 1789 launched a decade that saw a monarchy overthrown, a republic born and an unprecedented period of turmoil and violence unleashed.

Reigning across the country from 1793-4, the Terror quickly gave way to the White Terror, or Counter-Terror, that raged on in various guises for another seven years.

As with the political groups that had emerged in the early years, there were almost as many Counter-Terrors as there were counter-terrorists, their motives being as numerous again.

From the personal to the regional, the visceral to the respectable, the criminal to the tribal, the one thing they all shared was spectacular brutality in their expression.

However, contrary to popular belief, the Revolution was not as all-embracing or invasive as we might think.

While there were individuals who thrived in this climate, there were also those for whom it was little more than an inconvenience, and those who, it seemed, it passed by completely.

Drawing on these individual experiences recorded in the judicial records of the time, Cobb deftly brings to life a complex, anarchical and utterly compelling period with vivid detail.

Praise for Richard Cobb

“Richard Cobb is a visionary. His books will take you on an extraordinary intellectual and emotional journey."- The New York Review of Books

Richard Cobb (1917-96) was a British historian with a passion for France and the French Revolution, writing many significant works on the subject. Falling in love with the country in his youth, after his wartime service he unsuccessfully tried to attain citizenship. Returning to England he lectured at various universities before becoming Professor of Modern History at Oxford. He was appointed CBE in 1978 and chevalierof the Légion d’honneur in 1985.