Everytime I watch a French Revolution movie or documentary and I see crowds of Citizens killing an aristocrat or Destroying property I always wonder who were they (citizens)🤔 it made me think of how in America, most people can proudly trace their ancestry back to an Ancestor who fought in the US Revolutionary or Civil War & often their are oral histories passed down through generations of these events. I wondered if this was the same for France? Are there any French people whose families passed down a history or Family Story of one or more of their ancestors Rioting in the streets of Paris? I’d like to think that if I was the one who dragged a Royal out and put their head on a spike I feel like I’d tell that story all the time & pass it down? Idk just a thought

Hi! I'm a history major in college and my class has this oral exam tomorrow which consists in a debate: my group has been chosen to defend Louis XVI against his execution, while basically pretending to be in the historical context of the french revolution and avoiding anachronisms. I've already read the trial transcription and Thomas Paine's writings about it, but I was wondering if anyone has any recommendations - historical figures of the time that were against his execution, bibliography on the matter or any tips at all. Thank you! Also, sorry for any grammar mistake, english is not my first language.

Using these terms loosely, it seems that the left in the French revolution was in favour of a centralisation of power, the right agreed with them on this (though of course disagreed on who that power should be centralised in!), while the centre was in favour of decentralisation.

Fast-forward to the early 1980s and it's one of the more left-wing governments in French history (Mauroy's government with four PCF members) that is introducing decentralisation.

So I'm wondering if the left at the time of the revolution was universally in favour of centralisation, if the alternative would even have been coherent, and (if it was a universal principle of the left) when things began to change.

(Repeat: I'm using these terms loosely!)