#like hazan shows different elements of robespierre’s character but doesn’t do the same to lafayette

[pub-lius]

my biggest problem with a people’s history of the french revolution by eric hazan is that he keeps like. implying that lafayette defected to the enemy (meaning Austria and Prussia), but like. mf was immediately arrested bc he was seen as the cause of the revolution. the only people who saw him as a conservative were in france

#marquis de lafayette #lafayette #lowkey feel like the french revolution has so many figures who are misrepresented by people bc they were more conservative/liberal #like robespierre got the same treatment as lafayette but like reversed #i feel like the american revolution wasn’t so controversial as to have the same effect #and on top of that people have been working since it happened to counter balance whenever that happened #obviously some figures are still glorified but like there’s always been a lot of historians treating them as less one dimensional #but based off the books i’ve read about the frev at least one party is portrayed as one dimensional #and they’re always the villain too #like no one in the frev is overglorified GWKWBWKWN #they’re either a complex person or a one dimensional villain #like hazan shows different elements of robespierre’s character but doesn’t do the same to lafayette #the last author i read (forgor her name lol) showed all parts of marie antoinette and king louis’ characters #she did touch on robespierre a little bit showing his qualities but she didn’t go in depth on any of the revolutionaries really #but like brissot and co were portrayed as just bad guys who never did anything good ever #idk im just kinda used to authors at least attempting to show good and bad #even if its just ‘one time he helped an old lady cross the street and then he slaughtered someone’s entire family’ #no hate to hazan tho this book is awesome #i just wish it wasn’t trying to push such a black and white narrative in this particular instance #for the most part he doesn’t do it with anything else #but tbf i did start reading this bc i needed a more leftist sympathetic book to counteract the strongly royalist one i read before #imma tag this as #books #and #resources #in case anyone wants my thoughts on this book #this rant was longer than anticipated HEKWHWJ