The Legacy of the French Revolution

by Hancock, Ralph C.; Lambert, Gary L.; Beneton, Philippe; Ceaser, James; Lambert, L Gary; Manent, Pierre; Mansfield, Harvey C.; Marshall, Terence; Rabkin, Jeremy; Raynaud, Philippe; Reynolds, Noel; Thompson, Bradley

• ISBN13: 9780847678426
• ISBN10: 0847678423
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1996-04-02
• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Summary

This collection of essays by prominent American and French scholars explores the political, cultural, and social implications of the most fundamentally formative modern event, the French Revolution. The contributors contend that the vocabulary and spirit of the French Revolution has exercised greater influence on the modern world than the more moderate and by all appearances more successful American Revolution. The Legacy of the French Revolution delineates the distinctive characters of the American and French revolutions and analyzes the different variants of democratic political traditions that have evolved from this seminal event. This book will be of particular interest to political theorists, political historians, and students of democratic theory.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	vii
Introduction	1	(18)
Ralph C. Hancock
L. Gary Lambert
Part One The Idea of Revolution and the Problem of Modern Liberty	19	(62)
1 The Unfinished Revolution	19	(24)
Harvey C. Mansfield
2 The French Revolution and French and English Liberalism	43	(38)
Pierre Manent
Ralph C. Hancock
L. Gary Lambert
Part Two Two Philosophies, Two Revolutions	81	(108)
3 The Two Revolutions	81	(28)
James Ceaser
4 The American Founding and the French Revolution	109	(42)
C. Bradley Thompson
5 Human Rights and Constitutional Government: A Franco-American Dialogue at the Time of the Revolution	151	(24)
Terence Marshall
6 The Great Misunderstanding	175	(14)
Philippe Beneton
Ralph C. Hancock
Philippe Beneton
Part Three Revolution, Constitution, Law	189	(100)
7 The Rule of Law in Eighteenth-Century Revolutions	189	(10)
Noel B. Reynolds
8 The "Rights of Man and Citizen" in the French Constitutional Tradition	199	(20)
Philippe Raynaud
Ralph C. Hancock
L. Gary Lambert
9 Revolutionary Visions in Legal Imagery: Constitutional Contrasts between France and America	219	(38)
Jeremy Rabkin
Conclusion: Two Revolutions and the Problem of Modern Prudence	257	(32)
Ralph C. Hancock
Index	289	(12)
About the Contributors	301