Commemorating the Dead in Revolutionary France
Revolution and Remembrance, 1789–1799

This book is the first comprehensive survey of the commemoration and collective memory of the French Revolution.

Joseph Clarke (Author)

9780521189835, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 3 March 2011

318 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.8 cm, 0.47 kg

Review of the hardback: 'Clarke is especially effective when he charts one phenomenon, site, or person over time. The analysis of the state funerals (or pantheonization) held for Mirabeau, Voltaire, and Rousseau is illuminating, especially as the juxtaposition of the three events held in April 1791, July 1791, and October 1794 allow us to watch how the pantheon - and the Republic's founding fathers - underwent a change in meaning during successive regimes.' Eighteenth-Century Studies

From the fall of the Bastille in 1789 to the coming of Napoleon ten years later, the commemoration of the dead was a recurring theme during the French Revolution. Based on extensive research across a wide range of sources, this book is the first comprehensive study of the cultural politics of commemoration in Revolutionary France. It examines what remembrance meant to the people who staged and attended ceremonies, raised monuments, listened to speeches and purchased souvenirs in memory of the Revolution's dead. It explores the political purposes these commemorations served and the conflicts they gave rise to while also examining the cultural traditions they drew upon. Above all, it asks what private ends did the Revolution's rites of memory serve? What consolation did commemoration bring to those the dead left behind, and what conflicts did this relationship between the public and the private dimensions of remembrance give rise to?

Introduction
1. Virtue in action
2. Piety and patriotism
3. The founding fathers of liberty
4. Uniting all men
5. The apostle and martyr of liberty
6. Our brave defenders
Conclusion
Bibliography.

Subject Areas: Social & cultural history [HBTB], European history [HBJD]