Rebels With A Cause, by Asa Briggs

Résumé du document

This document is an extract of the book ?Everyday life through the ages' written by Asa Briggs and published in 1992. In this book, the author relates the way of life as it has developed through the centuries. It is important to understand the approach with which she tackles the American and French Revolutions that the text deals with. However the book is not directed at relating the events or presenting a chronology of this period. Instead it presents the social and ideological approach of the revolutions. The questions it addresses are: What does the word revolution means in the context of everyday life? What was the social impact of revolutions, and what ideas were claimed? This text tries to find answers to these questions. Moreover, the principle aim is to compare the French Revolution with American one. The fact that France took part in the American War with Lafayette is the beginning of relations between France and the US. In my opinion, this book will help us tackle the following question: On what points were American and French revolutions united, and what were the main differences between them? I will argue this point in three steps. Firstly we will try to name the American and French revolutions the ?sisters'; then we will then see that un spite of the similarities, the French revolution was a unique experience and finally we will present the supranational impacts of both revolutions.

Extraits

[...] Indeed the American dream of the Founding Fathers has much in common with the ideas of the French republic. And the two democracies are offsprings of the age of enlightenment. (They shared history of defense of our common values). What were really these ideas ? The main conviction was the belief in human reason. Consequently they claimed a lot of concepts based on a new man and a new social order. They supported democratic principles : liberty, reason, tolerance and progress. They thought that Liberty was the most precious good that men can own. [...]

[...] Jean-Clément Martin, La France en Révolution, Paris (réédité en 2004 sous le titre : La Révolution française, une histoire sociopolitique). Michel Biard et Pascal Dupuy, La Révolution française - Dynamiques, influences, débats Paris Raymonde Monnier dir., Révoltes et révolutions en Europe et aux Amériques de 1773 à 1802 Paris, Ellipse Black, Jeremy. War for America: The Fight for Independence, 1775–1783. (2001). Analysis from a noted British military historian. Boatner, Mark Mayo, III. Encyclopedia of the American Revolution. 1966; revised 1974. ISBN 0-8117-0578-1. Military topics, references many secondary sources Kaplan, Sidney and Emma Nogrady Kaplan. [...]

[...] I will not present the war but I just notice that the war against royalist Europe (1792-1812) made one millions of dead. But republic was also threatened in his own country. A lot of people disagreed with the Mountain policy of centralization , they were called the federalist revolts. Rebellions brought out in 1793, in Vendée or Brittany. It was peasants hostile to military obligations and in favor with non juring priest. They rised up against revolutionaries. In Brittany , those peasants were called Chuan. The republican army crushed the rebellion and make dead. [...]

[...] In fact it was the beginning of the American dream. American Revolution is the experimental cradle of most of our contemporary (present day) values. It is says to be the daughter of English revolutions and mother or sister of French revolution. Thomas Paine explained in his book Sens commun Common meaning 1776 that the issues of the conflict between American colonies and the pharaon England transcended the boundaries of American continent. He said the cause of America is to a large extent the cause of the whole humanity It perhaps explains mentality and why American people nowadays still want to light the world. [...]

[...] But in 1818, the Congress decided that the flag will only be composed of 13 stripes as the 13 founding states but a star will be added for each new state. Concerning the marching song or national anthem we still studied it so I'll not speak about. With the birth of this new nation appeared a new concept : the concept of citizen. It's interesting to see that both in France and US this concept was present. France won't to be independent but in spite of that it was as people took their independence. [...]