Yeah, I've only heard the quote attributed to Danton. It seems more his style--while both Danton and Robespierre seemed to like metaphor and somewhat stylized oratory (but, really, what revolutionary politician didn't?), the imagery seems more in keeping with Danton's.
That said, it hardly surprizes me that someone would attribute it to Robespierre and I doubt Schama is the only one to do so. While I am reluctant to accuse anyone of intentional errors in historiography, failure to fact-check points defending one's opinion appear unfortunately common. What it comes down to is that regrettably many historians seem about as polarized about the French Revolution as the revolutionaries were themselves.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2009-08-26 04:58 am (UTC)That said, it hardly surprizes me that someone would attribute it to Robespierre and I doubt Schama is the only one to do so. While I am reluctant to accuse anyone of intentional errors in historiography, failure to fact-check points defending one's opinion appear unfortunately common. What it comes down to is that regrettably many historians seem about as polarized about the French Revolution as the revolutionaries were themselves.