Monthly Discussion Point: The Sans-Culottes

[trf-chan.livejournal.com]

This month's discussion point is the sans-culottes.

And only six days late, too. :P I know the topics about specific people are generally more popular, but my feeling is that we've got to space them out a bit.

So this month we shall discuss a group - the sans-culottes. The role they played in shaping events, the range of different opinions held on them, all of that fun stuff. GET DISCUSSING. :P

Comments

[kurotoshi.livejournal.com]

LOL! Wow! I wrote a 30 page essay on these guys! Let me dig it up and I will spam this thing! Haha!

[bettylabamba.livejournal.com]

spam away!

[kurotoshi.livejournal.com]

LOL! I FINALLY found it (it was in my USB key >_<) now I just have to translate it! (or at least the info!)

[estellacat.livejournal.com]

Hm, the range of opinion on sans-culottes? Like in everything else, there are people who call them devils and people who think they can do no wrong, and everything in-between.

As for myself, on the whole I tend to think of them as good citizens for their involvement in the Revolution and how they shaped political events, militating, generally speaking, for good causes, or at least with good intent. Like the people at large and like many individuals some of them were occasionally led astray, but I don't really like to make generalizations about large groups if I can avoid it.

I know that several historians have made in-depth studies of them, in particular Soboul, but (I'm somewhat embarrassed to say), I've not yet read them, so I can't comment in particular.

[estellacat.livejournal.com]

Oh, and I was one for Halloween last year. ^__^ (http://estellelachatte.deviantart.com/art/Halloween-2006-61709284)

[morgan-wang.livejournal.com]

You know you're a fan of the Revolution when you dress up as one for Halloween. :) I was a member of the Commitee of Public Safety last year. I'm thinking of going as a Sans-culotte this year. We actully have a project on the French rev. due in a couple weeks. (A children's story book to be exact. yeah, I know...Little King Louis sat on a wall...Little king louis had a great fall--from power...) and I was thinking of coming to school as a sans-culotte, but I wonder what the teacher would think. :)

[estellacat.livejournal.com]

Especially considering I've also been Saint-Just and I'm probably going to be another Revolutionary this Halloween. Which member of the Committee were you? I had that same assignment Freshman year--it was ghastly, but then, so was the entire way the Revolution was taught in that class. >__> If you want to dress up as a sans-culotte though, I say do it and don't worry about what the teacher (or anyone else) might think. It's just exercising your liberty, after all. ;)

[morgan-wang.livejournal.com]

I was Saint-Just also. I had these little cards I made that said "you are wanted to meet with revolutionary tribunal." and it had a picture of the guilloteen. Just, no one in my neighborhood knew what a guilloteen was. I had one person get the card and say: "Oh cool! Yay! I'll be there!"

Was your textbook really pro royalist/Dantonist? Ours is. What was your storybook about?

[estellacat.livejournal.com]

I have my doubts that the real Saint-Just was quite so fond of guillotines, but I'm sure it was amusing, nonetheless.

Yes, unfortunately. There's no telling what sort of damage it might be doing to people's impressions. The storybook was about the Revolution, generally. Here, you can see for yourself: http://estellacat.livejournal.com/23938.html#cutid1 It makes me shudder just thinking about it.

[morgan-wang.livejournal.com]

Yup! we have the exact same sheet. We didn't even cover the fact that Napoleon was exiled to Elba. And we didn't even mention Saint-Just! :( Oh well, I guess its for the best. I would have really lost it if they proceeded to butcher his character.

I think we really need to do somthing about this! They can't go on teaching the French Revolution this way!

[estellacat.livejournal.com]

Really? That's interesting, because it can't be that common, can it? And it's bad enough the class--if not the book--assassinates the characters of the Revolutionaries they do mention, without wishing they could add more to the list.

Indeed. Someday, I'll figure out a way to re-write the textbooks, but until then... It seems what we can do is rather minimal--this is, we can speak up in classes we happen to be in, but outside of that there isn't much we can do.

[morgan-wang.livejournal.com]

Well, when you do get around to it, tell me, I really want to help. If we could just make it intresting for kids without sacrificing historical truth...

[estellacat.livejournal.com]

That's always the key, isn't it? In all honesty though, I think textbooks are just about the worst way to learn history.

[morgan-wang.livejournal.com]

I have to agree with that. How about a simulation or a game of some kind? I think students in general tend to enjoy that more. I've also created a game on the second Trojan war and American Rev.

[estellacat.livejournal.com]

I'm sure, if done right, that would be quite helpful.

[morgan-wang.livejournal.com]

So what do you think it should be about? (Besides the French Revolution, Reign of Terror) And how do we stay away from the typical revolutionarys vs. aristos?

[estellacat.livejournal.com]

It's difficult to say, since I've never designed a game before, but there are many different aspects of the Revolution that could be of use for one.

[toi-marguerite.livejournal.com]

OMG, I'm actually in a class that does EXACTLY THAT! It's sort of a LARP- it's called "Reenacting the Past" and you assume roles and take actions according to the dictates of your character. You get a list of instructions, victory objectives, a secret agenda, etc.

It is THE MOST FUN THING EVER. ^^

[morgan-wang.livejournal.com]

By the way, about Charles Dickens, Our textbook introduced the Reign of Terror by using a quote from A Tale of Two Cities. :(

[estellacat.livejournal.com]

O.o That's even worse than ours, I have to say. Frightening, actually.

[birthdayfairy.livejournal.com]

That is so awesome!

[sunliner.livejournal.com]

I've contemplated being a dead Robespierre for Halloween (just because I want multiple wounds). I'm more drawn to dead Marie Antoinette, though, because then I'd actually get to be a girl(!).

[estellacat.livejournal.com]

That was why I chose to be anonymous; I could just as easily be a female as a male sans-culotte. Though there are certainly plenty of female revolutionaries who are known individually, if that's what you're going for.

[toi-marguerite.livejournal.com]

Ha, in my First Year Seminar we started argueing about sans-culottes because someone mixed them up with the rural peasants. We had a very long discussion, following, on the rural peasants, why their lives sucked, and why they were mostly monarchist.