[BEST OF] The French Revolution: Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité

Revolutionary Left Radio

Breht O'Shea

Communism, Politics, Liberalism, Society & Culture, Philosophy, News, History, Leftwing, Socialism, Marxism

4.8 • 3.4K Ratings

🗓️ 29 April 2025

⏱️ 143 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

ORIGINALLY RELEASED Aug 29, 2022

The rallying cry of liberty, equality, and fraternity echoed through the streets of revolutionary France—and still reverberates through history. In this episode, we examine the French Revolution as a foundational rupture in world history, one that shattered the old feudal order and set the stage for modern capitalism, liberal democracy, and the revolutionary tradition from which subsequent socialist and communist movements would draw inspiration. From the class uprising of the sans-culottes to the radical egalitarian vision of the Jacobins, and from the fall of the monarchy to the rise of Napoleon, we follow the dialectical unfolding of hope and horror, progress and betrayal. What did the revolution achieve, where did it fall short, and what lessons can today’s revolutionaries draw from the fire that consumed the Ancien Régime?

Stella joins Breht to discuss (and put a unique communist spin) on the great French Revolution!

Check out our Haitian Revolution episode HERE

Check out our Paris Commune episode HERE

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Transcript

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0:00.0	At the height of the 18th century, the most glorious kingdom in Europe would face a mighty foe, the power of its own people.
0:15.4	One man would rise to inspire the nation, would cast aside a reluctant king and a hated queen.
0:23.4	And a new republic would be born in blood, the blood of the French Revolution.
0:33.2	Hello everybody and welcome back to Rev Left Radio.
0:40.5	Today I genuinely have a treat for you.
0:43.1	We had a wonderful guest on, my friend Stella, to cover the French Revolution in detail
0:49.3	and to make an argument that the French Revolution is fundamentally a part of our socialist,
0:55.0	communist, and revolutionary left-wing tradition.
0:57.4	And we should embrace it as such.
0:59.4	This is a really fascinating period in history, and we go through it in great detail.
1:06.4	I could not have asked for a better guess to just summarize this stuff with such accessibility and such fluency.
1:12.5	It really was an impressive feat on behalf of my guest.
1:15.8	I loved prepping for this episode.
1:17.3	I loved having the conversation.
1:18.9	I want to do more work on this front.
1:21.1	I would love to do entire episodes on, like, Rousseau, who we mentioned as a sort of prelude thinker to the french revolution as well as what came
1:28.6	after the french revolution namely napoleon and the napoleonic wars in europe that entire piece of
1:34.5	history is utterly fascinating to me and um i have a great guest to cover it and as always if you like
1:40.4	what we do here at rev left radio you, you could always support us by going to
1:44.1	Patreon.com forward slash RevLeft Radio, becoming a member, and in exchange for a couple dollars
1:50.0	a month, basically the cost of one cup of coffee, you could support the show and get access
1:56.2	to not only bonus monthly content, but also our entire back catalog. And we're actually going to
	...

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