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I do prefer precision in my humor, yes. Seriously though, I find the entire period fascinating (mostly via the Revolutions postcast, and reading Hilary Mantel'

I do prefer precision in my humor, yes. Seriously though, I find the entire period fascinating (mostly via the Revolutions postcast, and reading Hilary Mantel's A Place of Greater Safety). The French Revolution is such a pivotal point in Western history that I believe that precision is important.

mrwh 6y ago
Just another plug for A Place of Greater Safety: it's a wonderful book, rather overshadowed by Wolf Hall.
skrebbel 6y ago
Why was it pivotal? I mean, all I know is some proto-marxists overthrew the king, murdered everybody who looked at them funny for 5 years straight, went crazy, got overtaken by Napoleon who was basically the next king again. That's a few years as a republic, and an extremely bloody and dysfunctional one at that, how was that pivotal? Was it "just" because it was the situation let Napoleon take power? I'll definitely agree that Napoleon was pivotal :-) But I'm very shallow wrt this topic, I'd love to learn how (besides the bloodshed), the revolution changed matters.
- gerikson 6y ago
  > Why was it pivotal? Countries were transformed from feudal holdings under a monarch into nation states. I sincerely urge you to learn more. It's much more complex than a few fanatics overthrowing a king and then falling apart. Specifically, it's about how the full military power of France was unleashed upon Europe, and crucially, this was a power driven by ideology - people should govern themselves, not be beholden an ancient royalty and church. Napoleon could probably never had risen as far as he did under the monarchy. And crucially, he took power in part because he was so successful in waging the Republic's wars.
  - skrebbel 6y ago
    Woa thanks, good tldr. I never understood the revolution as causing the Napoleonic wars, and I had always gotten the idea that Napolean waged his wars for the much more mundane reason of an Emperor wanting to expand his borders, because ego. I never understood that so much of the revolution's ideas persisted into Napoleon's rule and conquest. Also I've always had a bit of a beef with people celebrating the French Revolution as some glorious victory of "the people" over their evil oppressors, without mentioning the Terror that followed. Maybe that's made me a bit blind to how much of the good parts persisted :-) I'll dig deeper, thanks!

mrwh 6y ago

Just another plug for A Place of Greater Safety: it's a wonderful book, rather overshadowed by Wolf Hall.

skrebbel 6y ago

Why was it pivotal? I mean, all I know is some proto-marxists overthrew the king, murdered everybody who looked at them funny for 5 years straight, went crazy, got overtaken by Napoleon who was basically the next king again. That's a few years as a republic, and an extremely bloody and dysfunctional one at that, how was that pivotal? Was it "just" because it was the situation let Napoleon take power? I'll definitely agree that Napoleon was pivotal :-) But I'm very shallow wrt this topic, I'd love to learn how (besides the bloodshed), the revolution changed matters.

gerikson 6y ago
> Why was it pivotal? Countries were transformed from feudal holdings under a monarch into nation states. I sincerely urge you to learn more. It's much more complex than a few fanatics overthrowing a king and then falling apart. Specifically, it's about how the full military power of France was unleashed upon Europe, and crucially, this was a power driven by ideology - people should govern themselves, not be beholden an ancient royalty and church. Napoleon could probably never had risen as far as he did under the monarchy. And crucially, he took power in part because he was so successful in waging the Republic's wars.
- skrebbel 6y ago
  Woa thanks, good tldr. I never understood the revolution as causing the Napoleonic wars, and I had always gotten the idea that Napolean waged his wars for the much more mundane reason of an Emperor wanting to expand his borders, because ego. I never understood that so much of the revolution's ideas persisted into Napoleon's rule and conquest. Also I've always had a bit of a beef with people celebrating the French Revolution as some glorious victory of "the people" over their evil oppressors, without mentioning the Terror that followed. Maybe that's made me a bit blind to how much of the good parts persisted :-) I'll dig deeper, thanks!