#78 The French Revolution w/ Peter McPhee

The Road to Now

Benjamin Sawyer

Society & Culture, History

4.8 • 629 Ratings

🗓️ 9 November 2017

⏱️ 40 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

On August 4, 1789, the National Assembly of France adopted the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, which asserted the Enlightenment ideals of universal rights and democracy. Though the French Declaration shared a common ideological lineage with the American Declaration of Independence, the French Revolution took a very different path: fifteen years after their founding revolutionary documents, the US had George Washington and France had Napoleon.

In this episode of The Road to Now we talk to Dr. Peter McPhee, who is an expert on the history of the French Revolution at the University of Melbourne (Australia). Peter explains the ways that geography, religion, and the French effort to fundamentally redefine society, shaped the complex course of the French Revolution. As Peter does well to show, the French Revolution changed the world, and left a legacy that is all around us today. (And for all you Hamilton fans- if you ever wondered what happened to the Marquis de Lafayette after Hamilton died, Dr. McPhee has the answer!)

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the Road to Now, where we look to the past and everywhere in between to understand the present.
0:18.4	I'm Bob Crawford.
0:19.1	As always, I'm joined by, well, at least for one more episode, I'm joined by Dr. Ben Sawyer.
0:24.5	Because this is the season of revolutions here at the road to now.
0:28.7	So who knows, Ben and I could be overthrown tomorrow by Ian and Megan.
0:35.0	It's quite possible.
0:36.5	It's a true social revolution. Yeah. So if you don't want
0:39.6	that to happen, let us know on social media, tweet at Ian and let him know, no, we like the current
0:44.8	monarchs and we feel as if they are benevolent despots. So Ben, wait, wait, real quick here. You spoke
0:50.3	about the French Revolution this week. That is right. We had the privilege of speaking with Dr. Peter McPhee.
0:57.0	He is one of the most established historians on the French Revolution.
1:01.2	He is at the University of Melbourne in Australia.
1:03.6	I love it whenever we get to speak to people who are as personable as they are outstanding as a scholar.
1:09.8	And Peter had so much great input. He helped us tie
1:12.7	the importance of religion to the French Revolution, spoke about the importance of the United States
1:17.3	relationship with France, and how the French Revolution, this amazing moment that in some people
1:22.6	see is the evolution of the principles of the American Revolution that then devolves into
1:27.0	great terrors and the guillotine and the rise of Napoleon.
1:30.7	And we even got a nice discussion about the Marquita Lafayette and who I have to admit, I know I'm not supposed to be biased as a historian.
1:37.6	Marquita Lafayette is one of my favorite figures in all of history.
1:40.4	Well, hey, well, then I'm just going to grab some popcorn and sit back and listen to this great interview you did about the French Revolution.
2:06.1	Dolph Ramser began his record label in his hometown of Concord, North Carolina,
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