New Man, New Nation, New World: The French Revolution in Myth and Reality

In this new interpretation of the French Revolution, Jan Baszkiewicz examines revolutionary attempts to &«regenerate» man, France and the world in the face of deep-seated and persistent traditions. Using a broad array of primary sources - including pamphlets, diaries, police reports, and debate protocols - Baszkiewicz analyzes the tools French revolutionaries used to build a new society on the wreckage of the Ancien Régime: Spectacular holidays, reforms in family and marriage law, general schooling, the Republican Calendar, the &«liberation» of public spaces, education through work, a new religion, terror and war. In the end, the great plans for regeneration failed, though the myths that surrounded those failures lived on well into the twentieth century.