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→Legacy of the Revolution
The influence of the French Revolution was immense throughout the western hemisphere, as other peoples felt that they, too, could rise up against their rulers and defeat them. Historians credit the French Revolution with spreading the ideas of the Enlightenment, limiting the power of nobility and clergy, and ending an absolute monarchy. But many who supported the French Revolution in its beginning were horrified by where it led, including numerous executions and terror. Some would say that France never fully recovered, as the French Revolution unleashed a hostility towards [[Christianity]] that continues to this day in France.
The influence of the French Revolution was immense throughout the western hemisphere, as other peoples felt that they, too, could rise up against their rulers and defeat them. Historians credit the French Revolution with spreading the ideas of the Enlightenment, limiting the power of nobility and clergy, and ending an absolute monarchy. But many who supported the French Revolution in its beginning were horrified by where it led, including numerous executions and terror. Some would say that France never fully recovered, as the French Revolution unleashed a hostility towards [[Christianity]] that continues to this day in France.
There are two main historical approaches to the French Revolution: the minimalist and the Marxist. The minimalist view, championed by such historians as [[Simon Schama]], [[Alfred Cobban]] and [[Roger Price]], states that, in the words of Price: <blockquote>
In political and ideological terms the Revolution was no doubt of crucial importance, but humanity was not transformed thereby... At the end of all the political upheavals of the Revolution and Empire little had changed in the daily life of most Frenchmen.
</blockquote>
In other words, all the events of the French Revolution had little lasting effect and the people that were killed because of the upheaval died in vain.
The Marxist historians, for example [[Albert Soboul]], [[George Rude]] and [[Peter McPhee]], counter by pointing to the rise of the bourgeousie class in power due to the abolition of seigneruial rights and privileges, claiming that the French Revolution was the starting-point for capitalist society and the modern democracy.
==Biblliography==
==Biblliography==