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The Twelve Who Ruled, By Robert Roswell Palmer

1664 Words7 Pages

In 1941, Robert Roswell Palmer, a revisionist, was another French Revolutionary historian who wrote about the Terror during the Revolution. Unlike Kerr, Palmer focuses on the individual leaders of the Committee of Public Safety instead of the conflict between the different classes. Besides focusing solely on Robespierre, like Mathiez, he focuses on all twelve leaders. By focusing on the revolutionary leaders, Palmer’s book, The Twelve Who Ruled is a political and top-down interpretation of the terror during the French Revolution. Palmer’s interpretation is a continuation of Mathiez’s as he also views terror as an instrument of justice that is used to repress and control its citizens. However, Palmer’s interpretation goes more in-depth than …show more content…

His argument is that the leaders during the revolution could not control or overcome their paranoia and used terror against their opponents. He claims there are two different kinds of fear, realistic fear and paranoid panic. Paranoid panic arises from two sources: “An exaggeration of a realistic anxiety or concern…(and)…fright about a completely normal circumstance.” The fear of being punished, replaced, or executed has caused these leaders to believe that everyone is their enemies even if they are not. In order to protect themselves the leaders punish or kill their opponents first. This results in terror which causes the anxiety of the leaders to rise and continue this vicious cycle. Terror as a result of fright over a normal circumstance is due to people taking normal situations believing the worst that could …show more content…

Over the course of decades, the interpretations of historians have changed. Some historians who have focused on the Terror are Alphonse Aulard, Albert Mathiez, Wilfred B. Kerr, Robert Roswell Palmer, Eli Sagan, and Timothy Tackett. The overarching view of their interpretations is that the Terror was used to aid the revolutionary leaders. However, after the main point, their interpretations differ. Aulard focuses on the Terror as a way to defend the nation, whereas Mathiez focus is on how revolutionary leaders, like Robespierre, use the terror as an instrument of justice and repression or as a means of controlling the citizens. Both are influential historians and they influenced Wilfred B. Kerr and R.R. Palmer to write a continuation of their interpretations. Kerr interpretation is that economic inequality causes a class conflict and that the Terror is a result of this conflict. Palmer agrees with Mathiez that the Terror is used as a way to intimidate citizens into following unpopular laws. These historians focus on answering the question why the Terror occurred. Whereas, Eli Sagan and Timothy Tackett focus on what caused this Terror. Their interpretations are that it was caused by the fear evoked in the revolutionary leaders, these leaders used the Terror to hide their own fears and as a preemptive strike against their

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