The Terror. This is a particularly good/instructive documentary because it combines differing perspectives by contemporary intellectuals and constructs scenes based only upon primary sources. The year of the Terror (1793-94) was the year that the Committee of Public Safety attempted to govern France in the turmoil of revolution, civil war, breakdown, and foreign invasion. It was the year of the guillotin. It was the year of the first recognizably modern revolutionary dictatorship. It was also the year that many democratic ideas were defined and launched into the world. In fact the Revolutionaries of 1793-94 were the first to use the word democracy in a favorable sense to describe the kind of society that they wanted. The problem facing those who ruled, as it always is in politics, was how would they set about establishing that society. (see Twelve Who Ruled by R.R. Palmer)

Pay special attention to the arguments of Simon Schama and Slavoj Žižek (you should be able to articulate each).

You will benefit from watching the entire program.

Do you agree with the position of Schama or Zizka?

From ‘rosy bums romping on frothy pillows’ to…

terms:

• the Terror
• the Republic of Virtue
• Carnot
• Saint-Just
• Couthin
• Desmoulins
• Danton
• Robespierre
• Law of Suspects