The Reception of Considerations Left Wing Historians' Refutation in the 1820s
This chapter focuses specifically on left wingers' refutation of Considerations after 1818, which gave rise to the republican interpretation of the French Revolution. As opposed to Stael, who broke up the French Revolution into liberal and illiberal phases, republican historians of the French Revolution considered it a whole block. While Jacques Bailleul was a main protagonist, some left wingers were torn between the Revolution (Terror) and moderation (hereditary peerage) In addition, left wingers refuted Considerations in epistemological terms. They sided with Montlosier's civilizational historiography of the French Revolution and elaborated a scientific history on the basis of social and economic factors, leading to a romantic historiography of the French Revolution.