Actually, Schama does indeed blame "the people" (and Robespierre) for the violence of the FR. I think it is a rather common interpretation in British and US mainstream historiography (plus Taine and the revisionists in France) to combine monstruous figure of Robespierre with irrational mob violence. On the other hand, the movie La Révolution française, for example, works with the notion of people in a very different way, more typical for French mainstream historiography (mainstream since the Third republic). People and their group actions are shown as heroic and to show that a politician is "in touch" with people is a way of making his deeds legitimate (Danton in RF). Those politicians to be seen in a negative way (Saint-Just and Robespierre, in this case) are shown as "plotting", "abstract", cabinet politicians out of touch with people, not as poeple's seducers in Hitler style. Yes, the link is on my LJ, it is public.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2009-08-26 03:09 pm (UTC)Yes, the link is on my LJ, it is public.