Podcast
Short History Of...
Marisa Linton's book "Choosing Terror" delves into the complexities of the French Revolution, exploring the motivations and choices of figures like Maximilian Robespierre and the difficult decisions they faced in the name of revolution.
Professor Marisa Linton is a historian and author of Choosing Terror, virtue, friendship and authenticity in the French Revolution.
— Episode: The French Revolution, Part 2 of 2
Episode: The French Revolution, Part 2 of 2
Marisa Linton's book "Choosing Terror" delves into the complexities of the French Revolution, exploring the motivations and choices of figures like Maximilian Robespierre and the difficult decisions they faced in the name of revolution.
Professor Marisa Linton is a historian and author of Choosing Terror, virtue, friendship and authenticity in the French Revolution.
Maximilian Robespierre was a lawyer in a house in northern France. If the revolution hadn't happened no one would have heard of him he was mild mannered, he was inoffensive but then the revolution happened and he got drawn into it like so many other people and he becomes very much a political activist.
If Robespierre had died in 1792 we would probably just think he was a good man and idealistic man. He was all those things but he was also a very dedicated revolutionary and he comes to believe like many others that in the cause of the revolution you may have to do things that are terrible so he starts to accept as many others do that terrible things must be done.
Robespierre asks the convention if they can leave in peace someone who is in his words no less guilty and no less accused by the nation than Louis.
When France and Austria were at war with one another whether the revolution should continue Mary Antoinette passed battle plans of the French armies to the Austrians. So in fact she was a traitor, she actually was. But the people who put her on trial didn't know that they guessed it but they didn't know it. And what they really convict her of is being a bad woman generally on the basis of some quite fabricated evidence.