The French Revolution according to Rick Santorum (Republican candidate for President of the USA)

There have been some very interesting interpretations of the French Revolution recently here in the USA.
According to ABC News (February 9, 2012), Rick Santorum is afraid that the French Revolution is going to descend on us (or perhaps Texas?), unless he gets elected as the next president of the USA.
The ABC News reports:
He told the audience at the raucous rally that Obama is restricting religious freedoms in this country, and even that a situation like the French Revolution could happen in America. As he spoke supporters yelled, “We want Rick!” and “We want you!” throughout the speech.
“They are taking faith and crushing it. Why? Why? When you marginalize faith in America, when you remove the pillar of God given rights then what’s left?” Santorum asked and an audience member offered, “Communism!”
“The French Revolution,” Santorum answered. “What’s left is a government that gives you rights. What’s left are no unalienable rights. What’s left is a government that will tell you who you are, what you’ll do and when you’ll do it. What’s left in France became the guillotine. Ladies and gentlemen, we are a long way from that, but if we do follow the path of President Obama and his overt hostility to faith in America, then we are headed down that road.”

Stand by for more of these creative forays into revolutionary history.

Christmas gift for the revolutionary on your list

“Guillotine” is a card game set during the French Revolution. Slogan: “Le jeu de cartes révolutionnaire qui vous fera perdre la tête.” Your goal? Collect as many noble heads as possible to score enough to win. The game consists of three rounds, with each round consisting of twelve “hours” (collecting a head takes one hour). You will execute the noble first in line. But luckily, there are certain cards that allow you to change the line-up of the condemned, and so enable you to get a better head, or make your opponents get a worse one. Of course, there are certain heads that aren’t very good to “collect”. “Collecting” the martyr isn’t very smart, for example.

The game is rather quick, and very easy to learn. There are not many rules, and the few rules that exist are consistent and very basic.

Strength: Simple, quick, and fun.
Weakness: Can be hard to find a place to buy it. Card iconography bears little to no resemblance to historical figures, but rather a Disney-esque rendition wherein everyone is young and beautiful. Also deforms revolutionary history, of course, but that is a different matter.
My kids and I found it relatively amusing. And they do remember that 1793 is an important date…
Would probably be more fun in a classroom situation, as a reward to students after learning about the Revolution (and prompt them to point out its deformation of history).
Happy Holidays!

A question of rights, by Cynthia MacWhorter

Cynthia MacWhorter participated in the 2009 Teachers as Scholars program on “The French Revolution: A Cultural Approach” (10/6 & 10/13/09). The creative project she contributed is a painting in grisaille of Marie-Antoinette juxtaposed, over whirling cloud-like brush strokes, against images of Robespierre, the halls of Versailles, the National Assembly, and the guillotine. The text on the painting reads: “October 16, 1793: What was her crime, really? Born, wrong place, wrong time? Totally clueless? Married a guy equally clueless? Not French?”
This commentary accompanies the painting: “Due to the fact that the revolution was all about human rights, I felt I wanted to address the lack of rights granted to the many persons who lost their lives due to who they were by birth. Obviously they were not totally innocent of ignorance, respect for the plight of thousands of deprived individuals and a lack of understanding which they probably could have remedied, but as I am opposed to captital punishment for even the worst criminals in contemporary society, I wanted to draw (with paint) attention to the young Queen and her plight.”
Cynthia MacWhorter, Art teacher, St. Joseph High School, South Bend, IN

Nourishing the revolutionary spirit

A paradox confronts the scholar of revolutionary literature.  One is initially drawn to this material because of its immense energy, optimism for democratic principles, and verifiable, powerful engagement in politics.  Also attractive are the voices of rarely heard members of society: the poissarde (fish-seller of les Halles) and the peasant, policemen and prostitutes.  And yet, over time, one realizes that most of the best texts published in 1789-1804, judged in terms of literary quality–style, characterization, imagery, plot–argue against the principles of 1789 and are in fact counter-revolutionary.  A new project seeks to gather some of these texts–from both sides of the political divide–to make them available for teaching in a bilingual edition with critical background and notes. 

So far, the texts under consideration include:  Le Falot du peuple (a lively dialogue on the king’s trial, as seen by two poissardes and a public writer), J’attends (a sensationally horrid little account of the guillotine waiting for the Queen), short stories by Condorcet, Sade, and possibly the whole text of Pauliska, which is arguably the best novel of the post-revolutionary period. 

Pauliska never fails to appeal with its bizarre plots of secret societies, vampirish scientific practices, and incredible gender bending.  But it also imparts a poignant sense of emigration, exile, and trauma.

Stay tuned for more on this project, launched by Julia Douthwaite and Catriona Seth, Université de Nancy, and feel free to send us your ideas too!