When I was getting two degrees in Chemistry Lavoisier was one of my heroes. Hard to believe how someone in the 1700's had so many modern insights given how he was taught and how primitive all the knowledge was then.
Lavoisier died at age 50, on the guillotine
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Re: Lavoisier died at age 50, on the guillotine
#32Earlier quoted context omitted.
Revolutions are violent, especially when they are over-throwing 10 centuries of monarchy. Did you know that the 14th of July is not a celebration of the storming of the Bastille? It is actually celebrating the 14th of July 1790, the Fête de la Fédération, a pacific celebration of the French nation.
Or it has its origins in both. Especially as the Fête de la Fédération was the commemoration the year after the storming of the Bastille. It might help were the 14th not commonly referred to as Bastille day and feature a military parade.
14th July isn't referred to as Bastille day in France though, and the parade doesn't have much to do with the Revolution either, it's just common for countries to have a military parade on the national day.
Re: Lavoisier died at age 50, on the guillotine
#33Other interesting Lavoisier facts: he used to hang around the imperial gardens with a massive lens using it to burn things inside sealed chambers. This always makes me think of kids with lenses and ants, but the work was key to understanding the nature of oxygen. his wife was a great scholar too, she diagrammed his work, and translated it and other works (french/german/english).
Nitpicking, but he died before the Empire (and I don't think there were imperial gardens) so I suppose it was the royal gardens instead (maybe Versailles or the Tuileries?).
Re: Lavoisier died at age 50, on the guillotine
#34Earlier quoted context omitted.
The major impact was the rise of national identities following the revolutionary wars and Napoleonic conquests. The same population who took part in the Terror voted happily for noted autocrat Napoleon, then lived under kings of various levels of mediocrity, briefly under a Republic before electing the then-President Emperor (because that turned out so well the first time), before returning to a Republican regime aft…
France never reverted to the kind of excesses that the set of Royalty at the time of the French revolution practiced. And yes, you're right the effect wasn't a direct one but it definitely became part of the DNA of France. For instance the role of the church before and after the revolution are tremendously different and aristocracy never managed to get the same strong grip on France as it did before.
Most developed places never practiced the same excesses, though... other than the Communist countries, at least.
Re: Lavoisier died at age 50, on the guillotine
#35Earlier quoted context omitted.
Revolutions are violent, especially when they are over-throwing 10 centuries of monarchy. Did you know that the 14th of July is not a celebration of the storming of the Bastille? It is actually celebrating the 14th of July 1790, the Fête de la Fédération, a pacific celebration of the French nation.
Or it has its origins in both. Especially as the Fête de la Fédération was the commemoration the year after the storming of the Bastille. It might help were the 14th not commonly referred to as Bastille day and feature a military parade.
Try to call it Bastille Day in France, nobody would have a clue what you're talking about.
The parade started in 1880, and was a political move after the defeat of 1870. Today it's a diplomatic event, foreign corps are invited, as well as heads of state.
Re: Lavoisier died at age 50, on the guillotine
#36Re: Lavoisier died at age 50, on the guillotine
#37Earlier quoted context omitted.
It seems that he was hardly an innocent bystander. > Lavoisier was a powerful member of a number of aristocratic councils, and an administrator of the Ferme Générale. The Ferme générale was one of the most hated components of the Ancien Régime because of the profits it took at the expense of the state, the secrecy of the terms of its contracts, and the violence of its armed agents. All of these political and economic…
The ancien régime was deeply flawed, but don't forget that the winners write history. Indeed, we live inside the Revolution still, so you can trust barely anything you've ever read on the subject. If you'd like an alternate perspective, I can recommend this volume: http://www.amazon.com/French-Revolution-Revolutions-Modern-W...
Thanks for the book!
Edmund Burke was a famous critic of the French Revolution.
It was as bad as its 20th century replicas, the red revolutions around the globe which were all based on the same ill notions of fairness, justice and equality.
Re: Lavoisier died at age 50, on the guillotine
#38Such injustice. Who knows what else he had on his mind before he was decapitated. Bias does no one any good. He was punished only because of his social standing and profession. He did no ill towards his fellow frenchmen yet was butchered to satiate their hatred towards the "elite".
People get punished because of their social standing and profession all the time - see also conscripts, slaves, and persons of colour in the modern _______.
Re: Lavoisier died at age 50, on the guillotine
#39The murder of Lavoisier is one of the most horrible outcomes of the French Revolution -- which was generally horrific, mass drownings [1], Reign of Terror (the word 'terrorism' comes from this episode in French history[2]) and whatnot. That is what I think about on Le Quatorze Juillet. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drownings_at_Nantes [2] http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=terrorism
Why does the reaction always get all the attention, but the corruption and decadence that preceded and precipitated it goes with barely a mention.
Re: Lavoisier died at age 50, on the guillotine
#40Earlier quoted context omitted.
The ancien régime was deeply flawed, but don't forget that the winners write history. Indeed, we live inside the Revolution still, so you can trust barely anything you've ever read on the subject. If you'd like an alternate perspective, I can recommend this volume: http://www.amazon.com/French-Revolution-Revolutions-Modern-W...
Thanks for the book! Edmund Burke was a famous critic of the French Revolution. It was as bad as its 20th century replicas, the red revolutions around the globe which were all based on the same ill notions of fairness, justice and equality.
Burke's an interesting case. Although revered by many contemporary American conservatives, he was a member of Britain's more left-wing political party, the Whigs (the counterpart to the more right-wing Tories).
Like most Whigs, Burke was a supporter of the American Revolution, but he was horrified by the excesses of its French sequel. He famously wrote his major work on the subject, Reflections on the Revolution in France, as a letter to French aristocrat Charles-Jean-François Depont, and later expanded it into a short book. In the Reflections, Burke predicted—over three years before the Reign of Terror—that the French Revolution would lead to disaster. Moreover, he specifically cited among the causes its abstract foundations disconnected from the reality of human nature.
La Terreur proved Burke right, of course, and yet the French Revolutionary principles—among them liberté, égalité, and fraternité—are for the most part as fresh as a daisy. Perhaps in the 21st century we could add diversité and inclusivité to the mix, but the basic lesson is clear: the Revolution hasn't ended. Burke's Reflections is thus more than a historical curiosity—it's also an urgent warning for the present.