ABSTRACT
Orthodox French historiography has seen 9 Thermidor as a break in the history of the Republic which inaugurated a reaction against the Revolution. It has portrayed 9 Thermidor as the victory of a group of unscrupulous, corrupt, and even unpatriotic men, concerned only to save their own skins. The Thermidoreans were pygmies trying to revive the conspiracy of the Titans. This chapter shows that the opposition of the Comite de Surete Generale was not purely negative, and that it was based on reasons of policy, not simply on personal resentment. In particular, differences in religious policy will be stressed as the main ideological conflict in the coup of 9 Thermidor. The chapter emphasises the degree to which 9 Thermidor, seen so often as the work of reactionaries, was interpreted by the Comite de Surete Generale and by its main authors as a revolution of the Left.
