Two Readerships, One Revolution: Writing the French Revolution for Scholars and the Public

Speaker | Charles Walton (University of Warwick)

Research Cycle | Slavery and Serfdom in Europe and the New World: Debates in the Early Modern Period

Director of Studies | Nicholas Cronk (Voltaire Foundation, Oxford)

Can one craft a new historical interpretation that engages scholars without alienating the general public? This lecture explores the challenges of writing history for a trade publisher. It offers two accounts of the French Revolution. The first is narrative, without academic scaffolding, and asks how far narrative form alone can carry a new interpretation of a canonical episode whose chief characters and events are well-known. The second account circles back to discuss the theoretical and historiographical underpinnings of the narrative. Taken together, the two accounts are used to reflect on what narrative can – and cannot – do as a vehicle for historiographical innovation.

The THP Seminar will take place at Fondazione Firpo (piazza Carlo Alberto, 3, Torino)