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[misatheredpanda.livejournal.com]

CAMILLE DESMOULINS IS 250 TODAY!

I don't actually have anything to commemorate the event, sadly. However I would like to encourage you to spare a thought (and perhaps a few words, if you feel so inspired) for this man who slipped into history - and more than a few peoples' hearts in the past 250 years - against the odds. I could never express how grateful I am for it.

Comments

[sibylla-oo.livejournal.com]

sibylla_oo
2010-03-16 07:08 pm UTC (link)
Comment Posted Successfully
"He's almost completely vanished from recent English language histories."

My little theory is that this disappearance of other CPS members has to do with today's historiography's 1) love for strong king-like figures (therefore reduction of the Year Two to the struggle between Titans: Danton and Robespierre, Liberal Democracy vs. Totalitarianism...bleahghhhh) 2)the claim that Robespierre was a Mao-like dictator who decided everything - this makes the others quite irrelevant ("Robespierre's henchmen"), if not directly dangerous for the historian in question, as their very existence shows how nonsensical this interpretation is.

[estellacat.livejournal.com]

That makes a great deal of sense, especially the second point. The first, while also, I think, accurate, begs the question: Why aren't there more biographies of Danton then?

[sibylla-oo.livejournal.com]

Because anton was still a radical revolutionary and leader of the masses. He is only comfortable figure IN CONTRAST to Robespierre, not on his own, as he still has a subversive potential.