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Paris In the Terror : June 1793 - July 1794

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As a student of the French Revolution, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I had read so many books from the clearly flawed monarchical and artistocratice viewpoint and general histories like "Citizen" that I was not nearly so familiary with much of the information regarding the revolutionaries themselves that was richly - and often uncomfortably - included in this book. I say uncomfortably, because there was a clear need for a major change in French government. Push came to shove as it were, when established control groups like the church and the artistocracy wanted to keep hereditary privileges, and with infighting among their ranks, newer leaders rose from the ranks of the populace with what would seem to be lofty ideals that they were willing - literally - to kill for. The amounts and detailed types of unecessary bloodshed in this book help point out how widespread and complex the problem was and why France would waver from monarchy to republic to dictatorship back to monarch and again to dictatorship. Written simply and written well, the format of informing us of the backgrounds and the personalities in the movements and then how their stories play out against the revolution itself is brilliant. It is the book with the most vivacity on the topic I have read, also making it easy to compare the past with the present anf future as a guideline for every heavy-headed crowned entity, even those with just a presidency. It is an overwhelming story of the triumph of self interest over human decency.

I have read this book multiple times over the years. One several occasions, I read it before a visit to Paris. The story is well known to anyone who has read about the French Revolution. The author studies the crucial period when the revolution spun out of control. The Terror began with the assassination of Jean Paul Marat by Charlotte Corday. The characters are well described and the details about their lives, and deaths, are riveting. Twenty years ago, I read the book then visited the museums that contain artifacts from the Revolution. The Musee' Carnavalet, the museum of the city of Paris, contained the arrest warrant that Robespierre was writing at the moment that other members of the revolutionary government burst in upon him and shot him in the jaw. The document was still stained with his blood. He was guillotined the next day and The Terror ended with his death. On a recent visit, the document was no longer on display. I decided I wanted to read it again and could not find my copy so I ordered another. It's worth it.

This year marks the 217th anniversary of the beginning of the Great French Revolution with storming of the Bastille. An old Chinese Communist leader, Zhou Enlai, was asked by a reporter to sum up the important lessons of the French Revolution. In reply he answered that it was too early to tell what those lessons might be. Whether that particular story is true or not it does contain one important truth. Militants today at the beginning of the 21st century can still profit from reading the history of that revolution.

Although the revolution began in 1789 its decisive phases did not take place until the period under discussion in this review, that is from June 1793 with the expulsion of the (for that time moderate) Gironde deputies from the National Convention. That event ushered in the rule of extreme Jacobins under Robespierre and Saint Just through the vehicle of the Committee of Public Safety. That regime, the Republic of Virtue, as it is known to militants since that time and known as the Great Terror to the author of the book under review and countless others, lasted until July 1794. It was in turn ousted by a more moderate Jacobin regime (known historically as the Themidorian Reaction, a subject of fascination and discussion by militants, especially the Bolsheviks, ever since).

Mr. Loomis takes great pains to disassociate himself not just from the excesses of the period (the executions) but seemingly the whole notion of democratic revolution at that time. He essentially has a position in favor of a constitutional monarchy, and let the revolution stop there. In short a regime run by a Lafayette-type, but with brains. Great revolutions, however, do not go halfway despite the best laid plans of humankind. That said, why would militants read this book which paints everyone to the left of the most moderate Girondists as some kind of monster or at least an accomplice?

If militants only read pro-revolutionary tracts then they are missing an important part of their education- the fight against patented bourgeois mystification of events. The terror in Paris is a question that needs to be dealt with while defending the members of the Committee of Public Safety as they attempted to defend France against counterrevolutionary Europe and also promulgated some kind of social democracy to maintain their base among the sans-culottes.

That said, every place Mr. Loomis places a minus we do not necessarily place a plus. We need to do our own sifting out of the revolutionaries from the pretenders. Mlle. Corday by all accounts was a royalist at heart before she murdered Marat. Marat was by all accounts a fanatic. You cannot, however, make a revolution without theses Marat types. A combat-type revolutionary party, if such a party existed in Paris at the time which this writer does not believe did exist, would rein a Marat in.
Danton still seen to me an equivocal character who wanted to stop the revolution at the threshold of his house, literally. A Danton-Robespierre political bloc could have carried the revolution over some tough spots. That was not to be. The fault lies in the personality of Robespierre, more so than Danton. Moreover, the execution of the leading Hebertists was a serious mistake, as it weakened the Committee's base of support among the sans-culottes.

Robespierre and Saint Just are portrayed here as little more than monsters. But without those two figures the contours of the revolution would have been different, if it had survived the Coalition forces at all. The question of the defense of the revolution takes short shrift in Mr. Loomis's account. That is the book's abiding failure. Robespierre headed the key administrative component of that defense. Saint Just was as instrumental in the military aspect of that defense. One can rightly ask, with the possible exception of Carnot, who else could have organized that defense? One should moreover note that a revolution brings to the fore all kinds of personalities- it however, can never to reduced solely to that element. Thus, militants should look elsewhere in order to find more ammunition in defense of Robespierre and Saint Just from the charges levelled at them in this book. Apparently to the author of this book and others they are in desperate need of defending. Nevertheless, they are worthy of honor in any militant's pantheon. Enough said.

Most books on the "Great Terror" are page after page of dry text. This book takes you onto the streets of Paris and into the mind of Danton, Marat, Corday and all the other players, describing no only their actions but also their history and the events that made them who they became.

Do not make the mistake of starting the final two chapters leading to 9 Thermidor (24 July) late in the evening. If you do, there is a good chance you will be up all night. In particular, the character, actions and plain bravery of Joseph Fouche, the greatest survivor in history, will leave you in awe. I recommend that while you read you have an interactive map at hand so you can walk the dense center of Paris with the actual participants.

Greatest tragedy of all is that shortly after the book was published the author, Stanley Loomis, was killed while walking across the street and hit by a car. Irony is that it was a Paris street.

I'm not a scholar, I'm a computer programmer who likes to read history. As a relative layman, I found this to be one of the most gripping history books I've ever read. It's relentless focus on the personal aspects of these men's lives makes this book read more like a novel than a history.

It is certainly not an impartial view of the era, but it does not claim to be. This liberates the author to portray some of the characters like the Batman-villains they were, and makes for an emotional and engrossing read.

Paris In The Terror, June 1793 - July 1974, Stanley Loomis; J.P. Lippincott Company (1964)


Purple prose purgatory (pulped).