French History Advance Access originally published online on July 14, 2009
French History 2009 23(3):336-359; doi:10.1093/fh/crp055
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The politics of escalation in French Revolutionary protest: political demonstrations, non-violence and violence in the grandes journées of 1789
* Micah Alpaugh is a doctoral candidate at the University of California, Irvine, currently completing his dissertation, entitled ‘The Emergence of the Parisian Political Demonstration: Developing Nonviolent Protest in the French Revolution, 1787–1795’. He may be contacted at malpaugh{at}uci.edu
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Abstract |
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The Réveillon riots, the storming of the Bastille and the October days of 1789 are known largely for their violent excesses, and they have been used by historians such as François Furet, Simon Schama and Arno Mayer to help place violence at the centre of the French Revolutionary experience. However, detailed studies of the early stages of these journées show that each of the protests began as essentially non-violent political demonstrations, which only turned physically violent in the face of attempted repression. Based upon a wide reading of Parisian newspapers, pamphlets, correspondence and other contemporary sources, this article highlights conciliatory aspects of Revolutionary protest and posits the existence of more peaceful alternatives to physical violence. Set in a wider context, where the overwhelming majority of Parisian street protests during the Revolution did not resort to physical violence, full-scale insurrection appears to have been only a secondary strategy, often adopted reluctantly.