Will and Circumstance: Montesquieu, Rousseau & the French Revolution

by Norman Hampson

The men who made the French Revolution derived their ideas about politics from Montesquieu and Rousseau. Montesquieu taught them that, if governments were not to become tyrannical, they must respect the general spirit of the societies in which they operated. Rousseau, on the other hand, believed that they should aim at the moral regeneration of the their peoples. For a time, in the intoxicating days of 1789, it seemed that the two conceptions of democracy could coexist in a society. In the years of disillusionment and conflict that followed, especially after the overthrow of the monarchy in 1792, the pattern of events seemed to favor the ideas of Rousseau, and the rise to power of his disciples in turn affected the policies pursued in revolutionary France. Norman Hampson examines the influence of the ideas of Enlightenment on the policies of the revolutionaries, following the careers of Mercier, Brissot, Marat, Robespierre, and Saint-Just. He shows that these republicans shared a common ideology and that the differences between them arose from matters of political tactics. This book is an examination of what happens to political theories in time of revolution and what some of the most important participants believed to be the meaning of the French Revolution.

Genres: History

282 pages, cloth

First published May 1, 1983

About the author

Norman Hampson was the Professor of History at the University of York from 1974 to 1989 and fellow of the British Academy in 1980. He specialised in the French Revolution and European Enlightenment. During the Second World War Hampson's service in the Royal Navy included two years as liaison officer with the Free French Navy.