Radicals : politics and republicanism in the French Revolution

A comprehensive study of political allegiances and the break-up of revolutionary politics.

The group of politician studies includes Marat, Robespierre, Saint-Just, Danton and Desmoulins - all key figures in revolutionary France.

They played an important role in variou legislative assemblies and contributed to extra-parliamentary activities such as journalism and recruiting for Jacobin clubs.

In Leigh Whaley's text, they form the core group behind developments which divided the Republican movement - which had successfully overthrown the monarchy in 1792 - into two bitterly hostile groups whose rivalry diverted revolution into populist extremism.These opposed groups emerged from a previously homogenous movement which dated from the Paris of the late 1780s and the initial motives for the cleavage were personal and tactical.

As the groups began to solidify, their search for support forced them into the kind of positions which have been wrongly assumed to have been there in the beginning.

Of specific importance is the author's interpretation of revolutionary movements and the human interest focus on the personalities involved.