reflections on the revolution in france by edmund burke

Shortly after the National Assembly stormed the Bastille, French aristocrat Charles-Jean-Francois Depont asked Burke his impressions on the revolution. For this episode, I sat down with Professor David Bromwich to discuss Reflections on the Revolution in France. In each episode, I talk with one of the world’s leading scholars about one book that changed the course of history. Zachary Davis: Welcome to Writ Large, a podcast about how books change the world. That's how he interpreted the events in France of 1788 and ‘89 and ‘90. It was published in 1790-one year after the French Revolution officially began.ĭavid Bromwich: And it was influential in making people think hard about the cost of what Burke calls “a total revolution” or “a radical revolution” that attempts to break with the past in the starkest possible way. He wrote a book called Reflections on the Revolution in France. Zachary Davis: Edmund Burke was a British government official who saw the revolution as a mob action. It was a crowd action where the soldiery, the Swiss soldiers, the palace guard, and so on, utterly lost control of order in the streets. Today, the storming of the Bastille is seen as a victory for democracy.ĭavid Bromwich: But for Burke, it was an event that turned toward violence, and it ended up with the heads of a couple of officials on pike. This day is remembered in France as Bastille Day and is celebrated every 14th of July. This event kicked off a decade-long uprising known as the French Revolution. The rebels stormed the Bastille, freed its prisoners, slaughtered its governors, and seized the weapons and ammo. On July 14th, 1789, the National Assembly gathered outside the Bastille, a prison fortress that was rumored to contain weapons and ammunition. Louis XVI set up military forces around Paris to control this new assembly.

Meanwhile, aristocratic society continued to live their luxurious lifestyles while the rest of the country suffered.Ī new group of dissatisfied citizens formed an organization called the National Assembly.

France was also experiencing food shortages and a nationwide economic depression. He was in debt and was taxing the poor to raise money. Zachary Davis: In France in 1789, many Parisians were fed up with their king, Louis XVI.

Reflections on the revolution in france by edmund burke