The King Who Lit the Fuse - May 5, 1789

On May 5th, 1789, King Louis XVI opened the Estates-General at Versailles, a well-intentioned act that ignited a revolution he never wanted, cost him his life, and released forces that are still reshaping the world. Louis wasn't a tyrant; he was a reformer who tried everything else first and called a meeting as a last resort. But the world of 1789 wasn't the world of 1614, and the gap between what he intended to offer and what the delegates understood themselves to be demanding turned a budget session into the beginning of the modern era. Today's episode is about what happens when institutions can't reform themselves fast enough and what gets released when they finally break open.