The Revolutionary Career of Maximilien Robespierre

As it changed forever the political landscape of the modern world, the French Revolution was driven by a new type of personality: the confirmed, self-aware revolutionary. Maximilien Robespierre originated the role and embodied its ideological essence and extremes; the self that he projected to the people was equated with the ideals for which he strove. In creating this intellectual biography of so enigmatic a figure, David Jordan has stressed the words of the man about himself. With great imagination and insight, Jordan places Robespierre's self-conceptualization within the context of events and explains how Robespierre "The Incorruptible"--a man seen by contemporaries as virtuous--could not only equate justice with vengeance and demand it of the people, but also stand as its symbol before the world.

• | Author: David P. Jordan
• | Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• | Publication Date: Jul 15, 1989
• | Number of Pages: 315 pages
• | Binding: Paperback or Softback
• | ISBN-10: 0226410374
• | ISBN-13: 9780226410371