Becoming a Revolutionary

The Deputies of the French National Assembly and the Emergence of a Revolutionary Culture (1789-1790)

By: Timothy Tackett

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Paperback | 15 January 2006

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372 Pages

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23.11 x 15.49 x 2.29

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Here Timothy Tackett tests some of the diverse explanations of the origins of the French Revolution by examining the psychological itineraries of the individuals who launched it--the deputies of the Estates General and the National Assembly. Based on a wide variety of sources, notably the letters and diaries of over a hundred deputies, the book assesses their collective biographies and their cultural and political experience before and after 1789. In the face of the current "revisionist" orthodoxy, it argues that members of the Third Estate differed dramatically from the Nobility in wealth, status, and culture.

Virtually all deputies were familiar with some elements of the Enlightenment, yet little evidence can be found before the Revolution of a coherent oppositional "ideology" or "discourse." Far from the inexperienced ideologues depicted by the revisionists, the Third Estate deputies emerge as practical men, more attracted to law, history, and science than to abstract philosophy. Insofar as they received advance instruction in the possibility of extensive reform, it came less from reading books than from involvement in municipal and regional politics and from the actions and decrees of the monarchy itself. Before their arrival in Versailles, few deputies envisioned changes that could be construed as "Revolutionary." Such new ideas emerged primarily in the process of the Assembly itself and continued to develop, in many cases, throughout the first year of the Revolution.

Industry Reviews

"A major contribution to the history of the French Revolution." - Sarah Maza, Journal of Interdisciplinary History "Narratives abound of France's first legislature, the Estates General of 1789, which became the Constituent Assembly of 1789-1791. None involve the detailed research that this coherent, collective biography of its total 1,315 deputies represents. Timothy Tackett has combed the public and private archives of France to find over 150 separate collections of deputies' correspondence. Tackett's book is essential reading for anyone interested in the origins of that revolutionary France." - Emmet Kennedy, The American Historical Review "By exhaustive and resourceful combing of archives and libraries throughout France, Tackett has unearthed far more evidence about the views of the members of the National Assembly than anybody before him.... In every sense, this book shows that, even on topics about which we thought we knew everything, the last word has not been said." - William Doyle, Journal of Modern History"

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