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Revolutions Without Borders: The Call to Liberty in the Atlantic World by Janet Polasky (19-May-2015) Hardcover
Excellent Book
Hardcover
First published March 1, 2015
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
August 24, 2015
Un excelente libro sobre la relación entre la independencia de las trece colonias británicas y los procesos revolucionarios de la Europa continental de finales del siglo XVIII y principios del siglo XIX. El libro se basa en fuentes primarias de carácter escrito, enfatizando el papel que en su momento cada una de ellas desempeño. Por ejemplo, a través de los panfletos distribuidos en las diferentes revoluciones es posible identificar cómo cada una de ellas estaba consciente de las demás y buscaba relacionarse con ellas. A través de los periódicos la autora revisa el papel de la prensa en dichas revoluciones, mientras que las cartas personales permiten ver cómo era la vida de las familias y los matrimonios. Particularmente interesante es el énfasis de la autora en las figuras que participaron en más de un proceso revolucionario y como en muchas ocasiones no pudieron adaptarse de nuevo a la vida en sus países. Lo recomiendo mucho
October 21, 2016
The project of this book is one I clearly find stimulating and necessary, an attempt at proposing a global narrative of the chains of revolutions in the Atlantic, most notably by linking the different narratives, individual or nations, or all those in between, and showing how many revolutionaries were truly "citizens of the world". Also, Janet Polasky's ambition is to uncover the failed projects, the forgotten ideals that drove these global revolutionaries.
However, I found the structure of the book quite unfit to the task, since Janet Polasky tries to weave a narrative of the Atlantic revolutions by juxtaposing several themes (pamphlets, journals, the fight of the blacks against slavery, the press, again the fight against slavery but in Saint-Domingue, novels, intimate correspondences, and wars). The result is that there is no overlapping or global narrative, only a collection of narratives that fail to produce the intended purpose of the book: an Atlantic history of the revolutions.
An even more important issue is the selective and sometimes faulty use of sources. Janet Polasky, in weaving her tale, uses her sources out of their context. For instance, when she mentions the British government's policy of repression against radicals, she uses sources from 1794 (all too normal) but in her narrative, it seems that these events take place in 1792. The chronology becomes mangled, confused; hence, the narrative is unreliable.
Being myself a researcher in the period, and more specifically in the links between France, Britain and Ireland, I identified the problem when she uses sources from the National Archives at Kew, but this casts doubts as to the other parts of the books.
Perhaps more expected is the problem of citing secondary sources that seem to be faulty themselves. For instance, Polasky places Theobald Wolfe Tone, the Irish revolutionary, in France in 1792. Had she read his journals (collected in the three-volumes The Writings of Theobald Wolfe Tone, edited by T. Moody, R. B. McDowell and C. J. Woods), she would have known that it is just impossible, as Tone was in Ireland then.
Finally, her reading and interpretation of the French Revolution sometimes seems a caricature of the most negative historiography, from Albert Sorel to François Furet, which drives her to make astonishing comments, as she does when contrasting Belgium were debates were plentiful, thanks to the pamphlets, with France "where the concentrated political power and ever-present guillotine inhibited debate" (p. 19). Worse, when she writes: "the Jacobins imprisoned or guillotined the leading French abolitionists" (p. 92), implying that the Montagnards (not the Jacobins: Brissot and his allies were Jacobins too! she uses the word "Jacobin" in the sense that the British then American anti-revolutionaries used) were pro-slavery. Wait! Who voted the decree abolishing slavery in all French territories in February 1794? Her chapter on "armed cosmopolitans" (chap. 8) is, in this light, very problematic, as her interpretation of the revolutionary wars in Europe seems particularly outdated, and, again, full of chronological errors.
Overall, this is a book that I would have welcomed, had it engaged more with the historiography, and be more serious. Here, Polasky clearly aims at a general public and only discusses the historiography in ten pages at the end of the book, but in so doing she proposes a incoherent narrative, which reinforces popular preconceptions about revolutions in general (they are messy affairs which bring sadness to people) and the French Revolution in particular (it was bloody and chaotic), which, in the end, it hurts more than help to rescue the cosmopolitan movement that she was trying to unearth.
However, I found the structure of the book quite unfit to the task, since Janet Polasky tries to weave a narrative of the Atlantic revolutions by juxtaposing several themes (pamphlets, journals, the fight of the blacks against slavery, the press, again the fight against slavery but in Saint-Domingue, novels, intimate correspondences, and wars). The result is that there is no overlapping or global narrative, only a collection of narratives that fail to produce the intended purpose of the book: an Atlantic history of the revolutions.
An even more important issue is the selective and sometimes faulty use of sources. Janet Polasky, in weaving her tale, uses her sources out of their context. For instance, when she mentions the British government's policy of repression against radicals, she uses sources from 1794 (all too normal) but in her narrative, it seems that these events take place in 1792. The chronology becomes mangled, confused; hence, the narrative is unreliable.
Being myself a researcher in the period, and more specifically in the links between France, Britain and Ireland, I identified the problem when she uses sources from the National Archives at Kew, but this casts doubts as to the other parts of the books.
Perhaps more expected is the problem of citing secondary sources that seem to be faulty themselves. For instance, Polasky places Theobald Wolfe Tone, the Irish revolutionary, in France in 1792. Had she read his journals (collected in the three-volumes The Writings of Theobald Wolfe Tone, edited by T. Moody, R. B. McDowell and C. J. Woods), she would have known that it is just impossible, as Tone was in Ireland then.
Finally, her reading and interpretation of the French Revolution sometimes seems a caricature of the most negative historiography, from Albert Sorel to François Furet, which drives her to make astonishing comments, as she does when contrasting Belgium were debates were plentiful, thanks to the pamphlets, with France "where the concentrated political power and ever-present guillotine inhibited debate" (p. 19). Worse, when she writes: "the Jacobins imprisoned or guillotined the leading French abolitionists" (p. 92), implying that the Montagnards (not the Jacobins: Brissot and his allies were Jacobins too! she uses the word "Jacobin" in the sense that the British then American anti-revolutionaries used) were pro-slavery. Wait! Who voted the decree abolishing slavery in all French territories in February 1794? Her chapter on "armed cosmopolitans" (chap. 8) is, in this light, very problematic, as her interpretation of the revolutionary wars in Europe seems particularly outdated, and, again, full of chronological errors.
Overall, this is a book that I would have welcomed, had it engaged more with the historiography, and be more serious. Here, Polasky clearly aims at a general public and only discusses the historiography in ten pages at the end of the book, but in so doing she proposes a incoherent narrative, which reinforces popular preconceptions about revolutions in general (they are messy affairs which bring sadness to people) and the French Revolution in particular (it was bloody and chaotic), which, in the end, it hurts more than help to rescue the cosmopolitan movement that she was trying to unearth.
October 1, 2017
Fascinating information. Dry writing.
April 5, 2019
It is really quite fascinating to see the progress of revolution through multiple methods of communication!
November 13, 2019
An interesting, and somewhat engaging book on Revolutions in the Atlantic World. Polasky creates a narrative that is someone disjointed due to the scope of the work that she has created, jumping from place to place, and featuring such characters as Peggy Shippen (one of my favorite Revolutionary figures), and Olaudah Equiano.
As stated, the scope of the work is broad, and the book rather brief. The sources she uses are essential to the work, and while there is no central argument (much like Saunt's "West of the Revolution"), I found the book simply wonderful to read.
As stated, the scope of the work is broad, and the book rather brief. The sources she uses are essential to the work, and while there is no central argument (much like Saunt's "West of the Revolution"), I found the book simply wonderful to read.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews