The Cult of Antiquity and the French Revolutionaries a Study in the Development

by Harold T. Parker

"Interest in classical antiquity asserted itself vigorously in the letters, the speeches, and the thoughts of that generation of eighteenth-century Frenchmen which participated int he Revolution. A cult of republican antiquity grew up -- a cult which started as a thing of feeling among a few, then spread to the people and to the well-to-do, became a fashion, then a fad, was transformed from a thing of feeling to a thing of forms, declined and passed away. As it ran its course the cult became so prominent that, ever since the Revolution began, there have been Frenchmen who have believed that its influence explained certain features of the Revolution. Here for the first time an attempt is made to establish what many members of the French revolutionary generations did think of antiquity from the time they were in high school until they were guillotined, and to show how what they thought affected their revolutionary spirit and action..."

Hardcover

Published January 1, 1937

Reviews

[maggie · Rating 4 out of 5]

read this for my ee and he kinda disproved half my shit #choosing to ignore

it was super interesting tho!