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The Revolutionary Temper: Paris, 1748-1789 - Old North Church
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Just a few years after the end of the American Revolution, another earth-shaking revolution erupted in France. When a Parisian crowd stormed the Bastille in July of 1789, it triggered the overthrow of the French monarchy and the birth of a new society. What sparked this momentous event?
In this online talk, the celebrated historian Robert Darnton will offer a new explanation of how the French Revolution happened. Looking at gossip, street songs, graffiti, and underground newsletters over a period of 40 years, Darnton argues that Parisian popular media fed a widespread conviction that the regime had lost its legitimacy. By 1789, ordinary Parisians had developed a "collective temper" that readied them to take the great leap into a revolution.
To register for this virtual event, press the Tickets button and make a donation of any amount to Old North Illuminated, the nonprofit that preserves and interprets Old North Church & Historic Site. Your generosity supports our education programs. A Zoom link will be sent to you before the event.
Robert Darnton, Carl H. Pforzheimer University Professor and Harvard University Librarian, Emeritus, was educated at Harvard University (A.B. 1960) and Oxford University (B.Phil. 1962, D. Phil. 1964), where he was a Rhodes Scholar. He taught at Princeton University from 1968 until 2007 and at Harvard until his retirement in 2015. The last of his many books on cultural history are Censors at Work: How States Shaped Literature (2014), A Literary Tour de France: the World of Books on the Eve of the French Revolution (2018), Pirating and Publishing in the Age of Enlightenment (2021), and The Revolutionary Temper, Paris 1748-1789 (2023).
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