ABSTRACT
In this lecture, originally given at the London School of Economics in December 1980, François Furet distills in a lighter style many of the ideas that are elaborated in his monumental book, Interpreting the French Revolution. Furet begins the talk by trying to come to terms with the fierce and partisan historiography that has dominated the study of the Revolution. His explanation is twofold. First, France’s own nineteenth-century political history of revolving regimes and political instability meant that the legacy of the Revolution continued to live on in the fiery speeches and idealistic plans of French statesmen (some of whom were important historians). Second, the outbreak of the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917 made any interpretation of its French precursor a loaded political act. Not until the 1970s, when militant Bolshevism had decayed beyond repair, was it possible to look at the Revolution from a truly fresh perspective.
