More Thermidorian propaganda, 2008 (for U.S. schoolchildren)?

[victoriavandal.livejournal.com]

I've just come across (whilst googling) a new book FOR CHILDREN called "Robespierre, Master of the Guillotine". The cover has what is easily the worst caricature of him I've ever seen (looking like a butch country squire), with the word 'Tyrant' graffiti'd across it in big blue letters, lest yer be in any doubt. It's in the 'Wicked History' series, which I presume is the U.S. equivalent of the G.B. 'Horrible Histories', and it looks like every damn library in the U.S. has a copy. It hasn't infested these shores yet, and there are no reviews on line, so, who knows, it may just be that it's using words like that as a marketing ploy to entice gore-minded children to read it, only to inform them in a lucid manner that Robespierre wasn't anything like the cackling baddie you see in all the films, etc..
But I doubt it.

Comments

[bib-specialist.livejournal.com]

I always thought Robespierre looked like Bob Hope.

[victoriavandal.livejournal.com]

Noooo! Bob Hope looks like Kelsey Grammar (Frasier Crane), who looks like a galapagos marine iguana. I've got a copy of Robespierre's disputed death/life mask (keeps family members out of the way, scares the cat too), and he actually looks weirdly like Michelle Pfieffer, with smallpox scars.

[citoyenne.livejournal.com]

and he actually looks weirdly like Michelle Pfieffer, with smallpox scars.
That's highly disturbing O_O The same goes for the book.

with the word 'Tryant' graffiti'd across it in big blue letters, lest yer be in any doubt.
Is there really necessary to set them up against Robespierre? You should think they already have a sufficient number of authorities to revolt against...

[victoriavandal.livejournal.com]

Still, here's a happy thought! Hopefully the kids will think the opposite of whatever the authority figure/teacher tells them (I know I did, and I suppose the same must be true for a lot of people on this site). Actually, in a perverse sort of way it's good to know that Robespierre and co still scare a section of the establishment enough that they still feel the need to produce this sort of propaganda (assuming the book itself is as bad as the cover suggests).

[trf-chan.livejournal.com]

Excuse me while I throw up a little. -_-



I. Just. AGH.

[victoriavandal.livejournal.com]

Oh god. That's the one. Even the coat is wrong! I read a thing yesterday about authors reading their reviews on Amazon and getting depressed - assuming the book's as bad as the cover, there's always the joy of putting a nasty review on Amazon. Well, it's revenge of a sort (I've got to post one on Simon Schama on Amazon at some point).

[estellacat.livejournal.com]

WTF, he looks like a more assymmetrical version of Thomas Jefferson. My mind, it is broken. D:

[gogo-sakura.livejournal.com]

I personally approve of the shifty look in his eyes.

[maelicia.livejournal.com]

That.

Is.

Just.

Not.

Possible.

[victoriavandal.livejournal.com]

Yes, it never ends.....
Someone here should write something on the Revolution for school-age readers to counteract this sort of thing. If only school libraries kept the Mark Steel book instead of this...in the U.K., the Mark Steel lectures are actually funded by the Adult Education Open University, and broadcast by BBC education - I don't know if that includes his Revolution book, though.

[estellacat.livejournal.com]

No. Just.... no. This is truly illness inducing. *gags* But why, oh why, am I not surprised. D:

[sunliner.livejournal.com]

That is... wrong. On so many levels.

[citoyenneclark.livejournal.com]

Oh dear. Oh what have they done now. It proves that the Thermidorians are writing from the grave. (perhaps they are ghostwriting it?) :) Thank goodness I have yet to see one in a library. Travesty! Even horrible histories didn't sink THAT low!

[levielan.livejournal.com]

I think it's the 'TYRANT' that really does it. I mean, even if that were true it would hardly be necessary to write it in massive letters on the front cover.

But actually, Horrible Histories are not *that* bad in terms of Thermidorian propaganda...though accuracy is another matter. As far as I know they don't have a book on the French Revolution, but I did manage to locate my old copy from when I was about seven of 'Rowdy Revolutions' and found the right section.

It could be worse. But this is their analysis of the causes of the Revolution:

"The poor peasants were forced to pay taxes they couldn't afford. Then they had an idea.

Peasant 1: Our American Friends had unfair taxes, didn't they? And they revolted and won!
Peasant 2: So why can't we French?"

On Marat's death: "A wise old proverb says, 'Those who live by the sword die by the sword.' And those who live by a bloodbath can sometimes die in a bloody bath. That's what happened to a leader of the French Revolution, Jean Paul Marat..."

Under the section on revolutionaries' last words: "French Revolutionary George Danton was just as daft. As he was led off to execution he cried, 'Take us to the guillotine now!' Well, they weren't going to take him off to a picnic in Paris, were they? Anyway, not everyone in his group of victims agreed! Danton's colleague, Desmoulins's famouls last words were not so brave. They were something like, 'Save us! Help! I don't want to die! Boo! Hoo!'"

OK, so that last bit is possibly essentially true. But...I don't know; I mean clearly he did not exactly go to his death bravely, but I always think it's a bit presumptuous of historians to criticise him for it. I mean, how brave do you think they'd be if they were going to the guillotine? Actually, who votes we find out? We could start with whoever wrote that Master of the Guillotine book...

Sorry. Not quite sure why I found it necessary to quote massive amounts of Horrible Histories. But have spent too much time typing it all up to want to delete it now...

[victoriavandal.livejournal.com]

I think it's really unfair not to point out that Desmoulins was going to his death knowing his wife had just been arrested - that would make anyone freak out. Ah, damn, I've never read these books, just flipped through them in shops, but I think I'll have to so I can write a narky letter to the author (like that'll change anything...). What you've quoted above really pisses me off. Actually, the whole 'let's joke about real people being really killed' stance of books like this really pisses me off. Have they done one on the Nazis? I bet they haven't - so why is it fine to joke about things just because it's outside living memory? I approve of trench humour and gallows humour, but not people like Mr. Deary - who I take it has never been a politician or ever faced death - taking the piss out of people who did amazing things and suffered violent deaths (I mean, I can't stand Danton, but I wouldn't dismiss him as 'daft'). Ooh, I sound very angry there.

[emma1794.livejournal.com]

Oh God, not again. Why does this keep happening?!?!

I love Horrible Histories; they practically began my interest in History, but let's hope they don't bring out a GB version of this rubbish. :(

[victoriavandal.livejournal.com]

I think it's coming out here in autumn. Oh joy.

[livviebway.livejournal.com]

There is another children's book about Robespierre aptly named Robespierre and the French Revolution by Tom McGowen. I skimmed through it once at my library and I felt it was fairly decent. Some of the old stereotypes and such, but I think it being somewhat balanced. Certainly no "tyrant!" scrawled across in giant letters.

[victoriavandal.livejournal.com]

I'll see if I can find it in the library - we never got that far in school (and I did history up till 18!), just loads and loads on Peter the Great and various Louis and cotton spinning machinery, so I've no idea how it would have been presented to us if it had.