Thread by @DavidAvromBell

1. A quick thought on Peggy Noonan's wretched WSJ piece. In it, she calls the French Revolution "a moral and political catastrophe... For ten years they simply enjoyed killing each other... It was a revolution largely run by sociopaths."
wsj.com/articles/what-…

2. It reminds me of the classic scene in Monty Python's "Life of Brian," in which the John Cleese character asks, "What have the Romans ever done for us?" If you don't know it, you can watch it here:

3. The French Revolution did indeed lead to a great deal of horrific bloodshed. Of course, the American Revolution was not exactly free of violence directed at civilians (especially the Loyalists). As for the British model of supposedly non-violent progress towards democracy,...

4. which Noonan thinks so highly of, if you think it was "non-violent," well, go read E.P. Thompson. Or, for that matter, talk to just about anyone in Ireland.

5. But let's stipulate that the French Revolution had moments of exceptionally horrific violence, and that even if much of it was in response to violent attacks against the Revolution by its opponents, much of it cannot be explained so easily.

6. But was this all there was too it? Was it a matter of them "simply killing each other" for ten years? What did the French Revolution ever do for the French, or for humanity in general?

7. Well, there was the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen...

8. The French Revolution also prompted a lot more thinking about the rights of women and of non-whites than the American Revolution ever did.

8. For that matter, in 1794 the French National Convention abolished slavery throughout the French empire.

8. The French Revolution gave equal rights to Jews.

9. It abolished the privileged status of nobles and clerics, and removed the horrific "feudal" burdens under which the peasantry, the vast majority of the country, had suffered for centuries.

10. In 1792, for the first time in European history, elections took place in which nearly all adult men had the right to vote.

11. The revolutionaries sketched out ambitious programs of public welfare, free primary education, and French-language instruction for the non-French-speaking majority.

12. The vast landholdings of the Catholic Church were nationalized, and made available for sale to ordinary citizens.

13. Torture and deliberately cruel methods of execution were abolished. Juries were introduced into trials.

14. Did I mention freedom of the press?

15. The incredibly byzantine, inefficient system of provincial administration was rationalized, with the old provinces replaced by new "departments," and a judicial system that had bankrupted countless litigants replaced by a far more sensible system.

16. The government instituted price controls to ensure that all people could afford to buy staple foods.

17. And there was a lot more. Not all of it worked very well, by any measure, and not all of it lasted. And yes, it was accompanied by a great deal of civil strife and bloodshed.

18. But many revolutionaries genuinely tried to institute a government that would secure the rights and happiness of all its citizens. It was a noble experiment, tragic in many respects, but one that most French citizens today rightly appreciate.

19. The Revolution didn't do much, in the end, for the rights of women, but it prompted a lot more discussion of women's rights than the American Revolution ever did.

20. And its influence was felt across the entire world, with its doctrines and reforms widely imitated. So what did the French Revolution ever do for us? Well, look around. /end

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