Sister Revolutions: French Lightning, American Light - Softcover

Dunn, Susan

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0571199895 ISBN 13: 9780571199891

Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2000

Synopsis

What the two great modern revolutions can teach us about democracy today

The American and French revolutions presented the world with two very different visions of democracy. Although both professed similar Enlightenment ideals of freedom, equality, and justice and set similar political agendas, there were also fundamental differences. The French sought a complete break with a thousand years of history; the Americans were content to preserve many aspects of their English heritage. Why did the two revolutions follow such different trajectories? And what lessons do they offer us about democracy today? In lucid narrative style, Dunn captures the personalities and lives of the great figures of both revolutions, and shows how their stories added up to make two very different events.

About this title

Review:

American historians have long appreciated France's contribution to the American Revolution, led by champions such as the Marquis de Lafayette and given full force by the combined Franco-American defeat of the British army at Yorktown. French historians have returned the favor by analyzing the contribution of American revolutionary thought to the French Revolution, which followed the American struggle for independence by only a decade.

Susan Dunn adds a well-written, lively narrative history to the record, with a cast of characters that ranges from the austere warrior George Washington to the firebrand Robespierre. More importantly, she limns just how different the American and French revolutionary projects were. In her view, the American Revolution emphasized personal freedom, thanks in large measure to the arguments of philosophers mistrustful of government in any form (Thomas Jefferson and James Madison among them). For the French, she suggests, personal freedom was of less importance than consensus, public order, and economic democracy; of paramount concern was the incorporation of ordinary people, the Third Estate, into the state. Comparing the American Bill of Rights with the French Declaration of the Rights of Man, Dunn shows how these "sister revolutions" diverged. The result is an engaging work of political history, one that illuminates the events of later years on both sides of the Atlantic. --Gregory McNamee

From the Inside Flap:

"Dunn is admirably evenhanded as she dissects the political and intellectual folly of French leaders . . . Everybody should read this book. It offers a lively education in a small package." --Timothy Foote, Smithsonian Magazine

About this edition

• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0571199895
• ISBN 13: 9780571199891
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 272