Maximilien Robespierre
Revolutionary Speeches
Will be published approx. on 31. December 2026
Book
Hardback
370 pages
978-1-009-47003-2 (ISBN)
Description
Maximilien Robespierre was one of the most important politicians and political thinkers of the French Revolution, both celebrated and reviled. His speeches reveal elaborate and important political theories and are all the more important because he did not write a political treatise or core text. This volume offers the fullest and most scholarly edition in English of a wide array of Robespierre's revolutionary speeches from 1789 to his death in 1794. Edited with an introduction by leading scholars in the field, Colin Jones and Stephen W. Sawyer, the collection provides the resources for an in-depth exploration of Robespierre's political thought. Robespierre's speeches throw new light on the ideas and actions of the political figure of the French Revolution who has perhaps more than any other fascinated later generations.
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approx. 12/2026
Cambridge University Press
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Persons
Colin Jones is Emeritus Professor of History at Queen Mary University of London and a Fellow of the British Academy. He is the author and editor of many books on the history of France, including The Great Nation: France 1715-99 (2002); Paris: Biography of a City (2004); The Smile Revolution in 18th-century France (2014); and The Fall of Robespierre: 24 Hours in Revolutionary Paris (2022). Stephen W. Sawyer is Ballantine-Leavitt Professor of History and Director of the Center for Critical Democracy Studies at the American University of Paris. He is the author of many books on French history and political thought including Demos Assembled: Democracy and the International Origins of the Modern State, 1840-1880 (2018) and Demos Rising: Democracy and the Popular Construction of Public Power in France, 1800-1850 (2025).
Content
Acknowledgements; Introduction, Chronology: Maximilien Robespierre and the French Revolution; Note on Text; Abbreviations; Further Reading; Bibliographical Information; Speeches: 1. Against the royal veto. September 1789; 2. On the national guard. Jacobin Club, 5 December 1790; 3. On the Silver Mark (marc d'argent). Jacobin Club, 20 April 1791; 4. On the liberty of the press. Jacobin Club. 11 May 1791; 5. A) On the status of free men of colour (I). Constituent assembly, 12 May 1791; B) On the same (II). 13 May, 1791; 6. On the re-election of members of the national assembly. Constituent Assembly, 16 May 1791; 7. On the death penalty. Constituent Assembly, 30 May 1791; 8. On suffrage. Constituent Assembly, 11 August 1791; 9. On the political rights of free men of colour. Jacobin Club, 24 September 1791; 10. On the rights of societies and clubs. Constituent Assembly, 29 September 1791; 11. On the war. Jacobin Club, 2 January 1792; 12. 'On the ills and resources of the state'. Jacobin Club, 29 July 1792; 13. On subsistence. National Convention, 2 December 1792; 14. First speech on the King's trial. National Convention and Jacobin Club, 3-5 December 1792; 15. Second speech on the King's trial. National Convention, 28 December 1792; 16. On the Declaration of the Rights of Man. National Convention, 24 April 1793; 17. On the constitution. Jacobin Club, 10 May 1793; 18. On the principles of revolutionary government. National Convention, 25 December 1793/5 nivose, II; 19. On the principles of political morality. National Convention, 5 February 1794/17 pluviose, II; 20. On religious and moral ideas and republican principles. National Convention, 7 May 1794/18 floreal, II; 21. Robespierre's final speech. National Convention, 26 July 1794/8 thermidor, II.