Summary
Overview
This episode examines the Reign of Terror during the French Revolution, focusing on Maximilien Robespierre's rise to power and his role in the Committee of Public Safety. The hosts explore how Robespierre, known as 'the Incorruptible,' transformed from an opponent of capital punishment into the architect of institutionalized terror, driven by his belief in popular sovereignty and his conviction that France faced an existential conspiracy threatening the revolution.
Introduction: The Reign of Terror Begins
The episode opens with a dramatic reading from Thomas Carlyle's influential history of the French Revolution, setting the stage for the Terror. The hosts discuss how Carlyle's work, particularly his vivid prose style, shaped the British understanding of the revolution as synonymous with terror. They examine the origins of the phrase 'let terror be the order of the day,' proclaimed by Bertrand Barère on September 5, 1793, and explain how terror became an explicit policy rather than random violence.
- Thomas Carlyle's history of the French Revolution was the most influential account written in English, shaping British perceptions of the revolution as equivalent to terror
- Carlyle's work heavily influenced Charles Dickens, who claimed to have read it 500 times and used it as the principal source for A Tale of Two Cities
- The phrase 'let terror be the order of the day' was proclaimed by Bertrand Barère on September 5, 1793, as an official policy to institutionalize repression
" We are now, therefore, got to that black precipitous abyss, where all things have long been tending, where, having now arrived on the giddy verge, they hurl down in confused ruin, headlong, pell-mell, down, down, till sonculotism have consummated itself. "
" Terror has long been terrible, but to the actors themselves it has now become manifest that their appointed course is one of terror. "
British Perceptions and Mrs. Thatcher's View
The discussion turns to how the Terror became central to British understanding of the French Revolution, culminating in Margaret Thatcher's blunt assessment during the 1989 bicentennial. While other G7 leaders diplomatically praised the revolution's contributions to human rights, Thatcher uncompromisingly declared it 'an age of terror,' contrasting Britain's quieter political evolution with France's violent upheaval.
- In Britain, far more than other European countries, the Terror is seen as almost synonymous with the French Revolution itself
- During the 1989 bicentennial, Margaret Thatcher told Le Monde that the revolution 'was a terrible thing up to the final death of Robespierre. It was an age of terror'
- The revolutionaries themselves used the word 'terror' as a positive political policy and strategy from 1793 onward
" The revolution was a terrible thing up to the final death of Robespierre. It was an age of terror. We did ours much more quietly. "
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