People of Libya, Brush Up on Your French Revolution History
(Do it right)
Alistair Covey
200901669
Dr. Robert M. Zecker
Modern History
20/03/2011
Fiscal problems, dumb leaders, and satire? This sounds a lot like a rant from Steven
Colbert or John Stewart but no these are the topics covered in the three articles that were
given to read in French Revolution II (Rocky’s Revenge). The first article covered was Eugene
Nelson White’s “The French Revolution and The Politics of Government Finance”. The next
article reviewed is Christopher Hodson’s “In praise of the third Estate’: Religious and Social
Imagery in The Early French Revolution”. The last article reviewed is Ken Alder’s “stepson of the
enlightenment: The colonel that ‘Caused’ the French Revolution”. These three articles cover a
broad range of topics that highlight some of the events that occurred during the time of the
revolution that aided in fuelling the revolution for years to come.
The first article that will be reviewed will be “French Revolution and the politics of
Government Finance”. This article was chosen to go first not because it is the most convincing
or that it is the most interesting (personal opinion) but because it was the first on the list. In the
article it states that it was France’s fiscal problems that ignited the revolution, the reasons for
the monetary problems are as simple as a university student with a credit card. The Crown was
essentially spending much more money on things that they couldn’t afford to pay for, thereby
accumulating massive amounts of debt. So what does a university student do when they run
out of cash? Make fake bills obviously, well except the French Crown was making real money,
which seems sensible seeing as they can, but no this created inflation that ballooned, causing
average third estates men to see their money’s value crumble. This is where the author takes
the reader with his argument, thinking that these fiscal problems “enabled bourgeois,
townspeople, and peasants to seek redress for their grievances” (page 227) meaning they were
pissed off. Rightfully so, most people would be kind of mad if their money was now worth a
fraction of what it used to be. So what was next? Well the bills had to have been paid
somehow, so this is when taxation was increased to keep up with the growing debt that was
accumulated by the many years of war.
This article is very straight cut; it throws down the economic statistical data from the
French revolution and ties it into the notion that this money crisis had a huge impact on the
prolonging of the revolution. It was very convincing in that it showed what it said it would,
White claimed that it was the fiscal problems inherited from the monarchy that could not be
solved, that helped drag on the war. He demonstrated this by bringing up the topic of the
estates general and how it has not been called since 1614, it was called to fix the monetary
problems at that time for the nobility (White 229 ). With the estates general they would be able
to issue a new tax that could have fixed the deficit but at the expense of the third estate. White
claims that the third estate saw this as an opportunity to do something meaningful with the
estates general and thus the national assembly was created. The national assembly was no
small deal and white bringing up the origins of it has very convincing context. Overall this article
was very convincing; it demonstrates the power of the monetary crisis but does rule out other
factors of the revolution which is key because there are more convincing platforms ahead.
The next of the three articles covered was “In Praise of the third estate’: Religious and
Social imagery in The Early French Revolution”. This article has a completely different theme for
its arguments, the author is trying to get across to the reader that the religious content in the
pro third estate’s pamphlets has been ignored by most scholars in replace of more Marxist
theories (Hodson 339). These scholars feel like it was the social content in the pamphlets that
made them so successful, but through his analysis and his use of some of the most popular
pamphlets during the revolution he proves that it is the use of religion that really made them so
successful.
In this article Hodson states that although most of the people who these pamphlets
wished to remain anonymous, most knew that they were men of the church (bourgeois). By
process of examination this shows that much of the content in these pamphlets had a religious
intent. This religious content could be hidden or it could be sitting right in the open, much like
a bas les impoits. In this illustration it shows two peasants chopping at a snake perched on a
cutting stump, in simple analysis this shows that the common people want to get rid of the
nobility with violent means. But with the use of religious analysis, the snake is a symbol of
unjust privilege (referring to the snake in the Adam and Eve story) and the peasants are the
righteous people who are trying to eradicate the government of these undeserving
aristocrats(Hodson 347). It is important to note that these pamphlets were one of the only
means of mass communication during that time period, 1780’s pamphlets were today’s
internet, quasi-free source media that could be accessed by millions with ease.
The final article Stepson of The Enlightenment: the Duc Du Chalet, the Colonal Who
“Caused” The French Revolution, takes on more of a biographical approach than that of the
other two. This paper talks about how one man single handily made most of the French troops
hate him. By doing so one scholar believes that he can be singled out as being the man that
caused most of the ongoing problems with the French troops at the time in which the
revolution was happening (Alder 1). It would seem that the French troops would be very
hesitant about protecting the second and first estate because the troops were that of the third
and what they were protecting the first two estates from was themselves, this could be a major
moral dilemma. It wouldn’t seem that hard to sway troops to join the third estates’ movements
because after all who is going to oppose them? Themselves? This is where the colonel really
messed up, he ruined things with his troops by creating reforms that would have surly upset
them. Things like cutting back on the pay scale for generals, eliminating useless ranks, and
reducing the number of show regiment (Alder 10). These things had already been engrained as
a standard for the troops, this was all bad timing for the colonel because the troops were
probably already a little uneasy with the way the country had been going at that time. In Alder’s
thesis he points out that it was Colonel Du Chatelet that was the “’man most responsible for
having ‘caused’ the revolution” (Alder 1). Through his journal I believe that he did a very good
job at showing how the Colonel was in fact one of the leading causes of the revolution.
Out of the three articles one intrigues me more than the rest. This is Christopher
Hodson’s “’In Praise of the Third Estate’: Religious and social imagery in the Early French
Revolution”. Although the other two both put up good arguments I just found that this article
was the most convincing. For me, I saw these pamphlets as a way of connecting people. People
were expressing things that they hadn’t before, through a media that was widely available to
the public. This was France coming together as one to say that they were done with the
oppression from their leaders and that they wanted change. The other articles do offer some
fodder of intrigue, but none I found was as convincing as Hodson’s.
Now that all of the information and analysis has been given it is time for the final
assessment of this paper. My overall impression of these three articles is that they were good;
it took a few readings before I understood much of what was going on but when the material
finally came together I had a new found, genuine interest for the French Revolution. Every
journal had something that was completely different which I liked a lot, each one was a good
change from the other. Each also had contributions to their fields as well, one had financial
dynamic that seemed to be ignored by previous scholars of the revolution. Another contributed
to a topic that has not been focused on much which was religion’s contribution in the social
media. The last article was different than the others as it is unique in its perspective of the
revolution, this one offers a more personal feel. These journals are a very good tool for
undergraduates to use to help them understand the many things that were going on in the
revolution whether they are looking for information about fiscal problems, dumb leaders, or
satire.