Ep. 88: Jeremy Popkin on the French Revolution and the Long Road to Emancipation

“No legislative assembly ever debated constitutional issues more thoroughly and more loudly and more angrily than the French National Assembly of 1789 to 1791. Imagine a group of 1,200 people meeting in a hall with no amplification equipment, shouting at each other and trying to work out the details of the Constitution.”Luke talks with Professor Jeremy Popkin, author of several books on the French Revolution, including A Short History of the French Revolution, A New World Begins: The History of the French Revolution, and The First Emancipation: The Forgotten History of Abolition in Revolutionary France. They discuss constitutional debates during the Revolution; state intervention in the economy and Babeuf’s communism; Thomas Paine’s insistence on the importance of equal suffrage in the face of the Thermidorian Reaction; the continuities between 1793, 1848, and 1871; the Revolution’s international repercussions, including its impact on slavery in the French colonies; and Herbert Marcuse’s course on “Social Philosophy.”It takes a lot of work to plan, record, and edit each episode. If you enjoy these conversations with guests like Professor Popkin, please consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Your support is the motivation we need to keep going.