Books in Brief: Robespierre: Portrait of a Revolutionary Democrat

Robespierre: Portrait of a Revolutionary Democrat, by George Rude (Viking, 254 pp., $10.95). If, as George Rude claims, to “enable the reader to come to general conclusions of his own” is really the aim of the last parts of this “political portrait” of Robespierre, the book is a success. Rude does not mean to make anyone a Robespierrist, but he would like to establish Robespierre as the great pioneer of revolutionary leadership. He begins with a narrative of Robespierre’s life, concentrating on the period from 1789 to his execution in July 1794. He follows with a compilation of historians’ opinions over the last 180 years. Then, in the last half of the book, he attempts (among other things) to establish Robespierre as the revolutionary leader, “the first great champion of democracy and the people’s rights.” Robespierre provided the model for the “revolutionary and democratic dictatorship,” and Rude points out that Lenin and Mao were left merely to improve on technical matters. However, Rude’s evaluation is incomplete: a revolutionary leader cannot be great if he fails from the moment of his ascendancy until his death to understand politics. Robespierre, according to Rude, regarded circumstances as mere hinder-ances. Habits (Rude calls them “relics of thepast”) had to be totally uprooted in order for a system to be built “on entirely new foundations.” Rude complains that the French had no parliamentary tradition to serve them as a guide. But no people is without a sense of identity, of tradition; and tradition can generate sympathy toward its own modification, unlike ideology, which has a rigid purpose, a specific goal. Rude juxtaposes nauseating explications of “sacred right” and “the laws of Nature” with numerous examples of “revolutionary justice,” in which the enemies of the Revolution are guillotined without the inconvenience of a defense counsel. Rude thus enables us to draw conclusions not only about Robespierre’s political thought, but also about Rude’s.

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Daniel E. Ritchie

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Robespierre: Portrait of a Revolutionary Democrat, by George Rude (Viking, 254 pp., $10.95). If, as George Rude claims, to “enable the reader to come to general conclusions of his own” is really the aim of the last parts of this “political portrait” of Robespierre, the book is a success. Rude does not mean to make anyone a Robespierrist, but he would like to establish Robespierre as the great pioneer of revolutionary leadership. He begins with a narrative of Robespierre’s life, concentrating on the period from 1789 to his execution in July 1794. He follows with a compilation of historians’ opinions over the last 180 years. Then, in the last half of the book, he attempts (among other things) to establish Robespierre as the revolutionary leader, “the first great champion of democracy and the people’s rights.” Robespierre provided the model for the “revolutionary and democratic dictatorship,” and Rude points out that Lenin and Mao were left merely to improve on technical matters. However, Rude’s evaluation is incomplete: a revolutionary leader cannot be great if he fails from the moment of his ascendancy until his death to understand politics. Robespierre, according to Rude, regarded circumstances as mere hinder-ances. Habits (Rude calls them “relics of thepast”) had to be totally uprooted in order for a system to be built “on entirely new foundations.” Rude complains that the French had no parliamentary tradition to serve them as a guide. But no people is without a sense of identity, of tradition; and tradition can generate sympathy toward its own modification, unlike ideology, which has a rigid purpose, a specific goal. Rude juxtaposes nauseating explications of “sacred right” and “the laws of Nature” with numerous examples of “revolutionary justice,” in which the enemies of the Revolution are guillotined without the inconvenience of a defense counsel. Rude thus enables us to draw conclusions not only about Robespierre’s political thought, but also about Rude’s.