The Jacobin Clubs In The French Revolution 1793 1795

A pendant to two well-received books by the same author on the departmental clubs during the early years of the Revolution, this book is the product of thirty years of scholarly study, including archival research in Paris and in more than seventy departments in France. It focuses on the twenty-eight months from May 1793 to August 1795, a period spanning the Federalist Revolt, the Terror, and the Thermidorian Reaction. The Federalist Revolt, in which many clubs were involved, had momentous consequences for all of them and was, in the local setting, the principal cause of the Reign of Terror, a period in which more than 5,300 communes had clubs that reached the zenith of their power and influence, engaging in a myriad of political, administrative, judicial, religious, economic, social, and war-related activities. The book ends with their decline and final dissolution by a decree of the Convention in Paris.

In 1982 Princeton University Press published the widely acclaimed first volume of Michael Kennedy's trilogy on the Jacobin movement. When it is completed, this work will be not only the first general history of the provincial Jacobin clubs to appear in half a century but also the most thorough treatment of the subject. Volume 2, spanning the period from the opening of the Legislative Assembly on October 1, 1791, to a decisive coup that occurred in Paris on June 2, 1793, is based on archival research in Paris and in nearly seventy French departments, as well as on hundreds of published sources. The book covers the years when the politics of the Revolution took a radical turn that led to the split between the Girondins and Montagnards. The book is divided into six parts. The first section charts fluctuations in the activity of the network of 1,500 clubs and analyzes changes in their membership. The second focuses on the "subsistances" and monetary crises, and on issues such as land reform and public education; the third, on the great debate over peace or war in the early Legislative Assembly and the contributions of the societies to the war effort after hostilities commenced. In the fourth section the author reviews the newspapers that the clubs read and published and chronicles the growth of anticlericalism. Section five details the rise of opposition to Louis XVI, and the sixth section deals with the Girondin-Montagnard feud. The book concludes with an essay on the sources of club history in the departments, intended to serve as a guide for future researchers.

In this first detailed study of the Revolt of Lyon (1789-1793), Edmonds examines the social tensions and political rivalries that led to savage repression in the city by the Jacobin Republic. Drawing on extensive archival sources, many of them previously unpublished, Edmonds analyzes the links between social conflict and revolutionary politics, arguing that the social divisions in the city had a significant impact on the two most notable features of the its revolutionary history: the precocious emergence of a popular democratic movement and the violent radicalism of the Lyonnais Jacobins. Certain to be of interest to students of modern French history and social and political historians, this incisive study will be an invaluable addition to our understanding of the history of Jacobinism and of political participation during the first European democratic revolution.