The French Revolution

Joseph de Maistre and Retributionist Theology

Joseph de Maistre is usually portrayed as Edmund Burke’s French counterpart, as they both wrote important treatises against the French Revolution. Although Maistre did share many of Burke’s conservative political views, he was much more than a political thinker. He was above all a religious thinker who interpreted political events through the prism of a particular retributionist theology. Accor...

The Debate on the French Revolution (review)

Historical and Cultural Backgrounds of André Godard's Research Activities in Iran

Numerous foreign architects and researchers came to Iran from European countries in the first half of the contemporary century to carry out various activities. One of these figures was André Godard, whose cultural and research activities are of special importance in terms of variety and effectiveness. The present study hence aims to discuss the cultural and historical backgrounds that made it p...

Napoleon Bonaparte’s Concordat and the French Revolution

In 1815, Napoleon Bonaparte and Pope Pius XVII signed an agreement called the Concordat, which was an agreement between the French state and the Catholic Church that reconciled the Church with the antireligious policies established during the French Revolution. This paper discusses the conflicting viewpoints held by various historians concerning the legacy of the Concordat; that is, did the agr...

Knowledge Elites and Modernization: Evidence from Revolutionary France

This paper examines the role of knowledge elites in modernization. At the eve of the French Revolution, in the spring of 1789, King Louis XVI solicited lists of grievances (Cahiers de Doléances), in which the public could express complaints and suggestions for reforms of the Ancien Regime. We show that the demand for mass education and democratization was particularly high in regions that had a...