Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity: Studies on the Era of the French Revolution and Napoleon

This collection of a number of Joseph I. Shulim’s major articles and two previously unpublished papers deals with fundamental aspects of the era of the French Revolution and Napoleon. In the first section he examines the reactions mainly of American contemporaries to the French Revolution and, especially, to Napoleon and his rule. An Age of Atlantic Revolutions emerges from these essays. The French Revolution, the predominant one of the age, is analyzed in the next section. In these chapters Professor Shulim moves toward a new interpretation of the origins and nature of the French Revolution. He examines the traditional or Marxist interpretation critically and concludes by questioning its validity. The chapters in the last section reassess important aspects of the life of Robespierre.