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Maximilien Robespierre
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"Maximilien Robespierre was an ambitious provincial lawyer whose political career came to epitomize the bloody excesses of the French Revolution. Few would argue that his commitment to egalitarian principles was anything less than genuine, but his intransigent commitment to these principles set the basis for a terror-based state whose legacy still haunts the postmodern world. Scurrskillfully uses Robespierre's writings to provide insight into a complex personality of the man called the Incorruptible, who was kind and gentle in private life and a brutal infighter in the public arena. Scurr maintains that Robespierre's iron will sustained the Revolution during its most turbulent period but that within his fanaticism lurked the seeds of his demise. His Reign of Terror eventually devoured him. This is Scurr's first book, and one hopes that it is not her last.
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Maximilien Robespierre, known to his contemporaries as "the Incorruptible," is one of the most controversial and perhaps misunderstood figures of the French Revolution. His name has become symbolic for that period of the Revolution known as the Reign of Terror; certainly he was a man who wielded great influence and power over the course of events of the French Republic between 1792 and 1794; yet different people in different eras had differing opinions of the man and his power. Some, especially his English and Austrian contemporaries, saw him as the Devil incarnate, while others have hailed him as the champion of liberty and the protector of democracy. Some see in him the origins of twentieth century dictatorship along the lines of Stalin or Hitler. Most agree that, for a time, he was the most important man in the Revolution, and it is clear that the reaction of 9th Thermidor (July 27, 1794), which brought about his downfall and execution... caused the end of the Terror and brought about a new course for the Revolution itself.
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Maximilien Robespierre led the phase of the French Revolution called the Terror. It lasted a little over a year. He gave the orders that resulted in beheading, drowning, shooting, or burying alive about 20,000 men, women, and children. Mao Zedong ruled China between 1949 and his death in 1976. During his tenure, his followers murdered, on a low estimate, 20 million people. These two men were among the handful of great mass murderers of modern times, in the same class as Hitler, Lenin, Pol Pot, and Stalin.
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Maximilien Robespierre would address the National Convention on the 8th of Thermidor (July 26th). It was sultry when the deputies assembled at 11 a.m. in the Pavilion de Marsan, their new auditorium in the Tuileries. Of the Convention's 730 members, the Girondins had sat in the Plain or Marais, the lower seats about the rostrum, while Jacobins occupied the Mountain or the higher seats.
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Maximilien Robespierre was born on May 6, 1758 in the bustling city of Arras, located in the northernmost tip of France. Born of a poor family, Robespierre's mother died while he was at the tender age of nine. His father, devastated by the loss, abandoned Robespierre and his siblings to be brought up by various relatives. Though impoverished, Robespierre was able to study at a local college, where he quickly rose above his peers through hard work and studiousness. A scholarship enabled him to study law in Paris. The early years of his life read like a good storybook: an impoverished boy transcends his circumstances to become a respected lawyer.
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Maximilien Robespierre was born in Arras, France, in 1758. He studied law through a scholarship and in 1789 was elected to be a representative of the Arras commoners in the Estates General. After the Third Estate, which represented commoners and the lower clergy, declared itself the National Assembly, Robespierre became a prominent member of the Revolutionary body. He took a radical, democratic stance and was known as "the Incorruptible" for his dedication to civic morality. In April 1790, he presided over the Jacobins, a powerful political club that promoted the ideas of the French Revolution.
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Maximilien Robespierre