The French Revolution

Background

The American Revolution of 1776 and the French Revolution of 1789 bequeathed to the world two revolutionary paradigms along with two competing narratives of the revolutionary experience. This site captures the radical core of the French Revolution, and invites the reader to speculate on the impact—or absence of impact—of the original French Revolutions on the revolutionary, totalitarian, and liberation movements around the world in the 20th and 21st centuries.

Edmund Burke

• Reflections
• Thoughts on the Present Discontent

Karl Marx

• 18th Brumaire
• Class Struggle, Via the Marxists.org

Richard Price

• Discourse on the Love of Our Country

Charles de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu

• Spirit of Laws

J. J. Rousseau

• Social Contract
• Emile

Thomas Paine

• Rights of Man

Mary Shelly Wollstonecraft

• Vindication of the Rights of Women

Resources Compiled by
Dr. Gordon Lloyd
Professor of Public Policy
Pepperdine University