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Zusatztext This rich biography of Rousselin tells us the story of a brilliant, committed and courageous man, whose life was marked by passion, manipulation, power and luck. It is also a rigorously researched story that has much to tell us about the personal perils involved in maneuvering behind the scenes of power during decades of revolutions, wars, military coups and changing political regimes. Informationen zum Autor Jeff Horn is Professor of History at Manhattan College. He is the author or editor of numerous books, including Economic Development in Early Modern France: The Privilege of Liberty, 1650-1820. Klappentext Much has been written about the French Revolution and especially its bloody phase known as the Reign of Terror. The actions of the leaders who unleashed the massacres and public executions, especially Maximilien Robespierre and Georges Danton, are well known. They inspired many soldiers in the Revolutionary cause, who did not survive, let alone thrive, in the post-Revolutionary world. In this work of historical reconstruction, Jeff Horn recounts the life of Alexandre Rousselin and narrates the history of the age of the French Revolution from the perspective of an eyewitness. From a young age, Rousselin worked for and with some of the era's most important men and women, giving him access to the corridors of power. Dedication to the ideals of the Revolution led him to accept the need for a system of Terror to save the Republic in 1793-94. Rousselin personally utilized violent methods to accomplish the state's goals in Provins and Troyes. This terrorism marked his life. It led to his denunciation by its victims. He spent the next five decades trying to escape the consequences of his actions. His emotional responses as well as the practical measures he took to rehabilitate his reputation illuminate the hopes and fears of the revolutionaries. Across the first four decades of the nineteenth century, Rousselin acquired a noble title, the comte de Saint-Albin, and emerged as a wealthy press baron of the liberal newspaper Le Constitutionnel. But he could not escape his past. He retired to write his own version of his legacy and to protect his family from the consequences of his actions as a terrorist during the French Revolution. Rousselin's life traces the complex twists and turns of the Revolution and demonstrates how one man was able to remake himself, from a revolutionary to a liberal, to accommodate regime change. Zusammenfassung This is the story of how an educated young man decided that the French Revolution was worth the use of state-sponsored violence, chose to become a terrorist to protect the republic, and spent the next five decades defending his actions. Inhaltsverzeichnis Acknowledgments Introduction: A Romantic Remembers the French Revolution Chapter 1: Education for Change, 1773-92 Chapter 2: The Making of a Terrorist, 1792-94 Chapter 3: The Consequences of Terror, 1794-96 Chapter 4: Rehabilitation: Political, Literary, and Social (1795-1815) Chapter 5: Liberalism and the Press (1816-38) Chapter 6: Remembering and Forgetting the French Revolution: Memories and Memoirs Conclusion: Satisfactions and Regrets of a Life in Revolution Appendix: Alexandre Rousselin and the Historians Timeline Notes Select Bibliography Index ...
