ABSTRACT
In November 1794, the Convention ordered the closing of the Paris Jacobin Club. The radicalism of the French Revolution which had in fact cooled considerably by this time was suggested by images of the guillotine, a bare-breasted woman holding a pike, and blacks joining whites in a 'civic feast'. The majority were successful members of the bourgeoisie who had been active in local affairs during the early years of the Revolution. The "thermidorian reaction" also turned against the social and economic policies adopted in 1793. The "Second Directory" abandoned the "balance-beam" tactics used in 1795-1797 and reverted to the militant republican rhetoric of 1793. Recent historians have demonstrated that the Directory years were not as chaotic as this stereotype suggests. As Toussaint Louverture was gaining power in Saint-Domingue in 1798, the Directory embarked on a new kind of colonial venture in Egypt.
