The Making of a Terrorist: Alexandre Rousselin and the French Revolution
Publisher: Oxford University Press (June 1, 2023)
Paperback: 256 pages
ISBN: 9780197675540
Much has been written about the French Revolution and especially its bloody phase known as the Reign of Terror. The actions of the leaders who unleashed the massacres and public executions, especially Maximilien Robespierre and Georges Danton, are well known. They inspired many soldiers in the Revolutionary cause, who did not survive, let alone thrive, in the post-Revolutionary world.
In this work of historical reconstruction, Jeff Horn recounts the life of Alexandre Rousselin and narrates the history of the age of the French Revolution from the perspective of an eyewitness. From a young age, Rousselin worked for and with some of the era's most important men and women, giving him access to the corridors of power. Dedication to the ideals of the Revolution led him to accept the need for a system of Terror to save the Republic in 1793-94. Rousselin personally utilized violent methods to accomplish the state's goals in Provins and Troyes. This terrorism marked his life. It led to his denunciation by its victims. He spent the next five decades trying to escape the consequences of his actions. His emotional responses as well as the practical measures he took to rehabilitate his reputation illuminate the hopes and fears of the revolutionaries. Across the first four decades of the nineteenth century, Rousselin acquired a noble title, the comte de Saint-Albin, and emerged
as a wealthy press baron of the liberal newspaper Le Constitutionnel. But he could not escape his past. He retired to write his own version of his legacy and to protect his family from the consequences of his actions as a terrorist during the French Revolution.
Rousselin's life traces the complex twists and turns of the Revolution and demonstrates how one man was able to remake himself, from a revolutionary to a liberal, to accommodate regime change.
Review
"Relatively short, fast-paced, insightful, and well-written.... The significance of Horn's modest biography is that it reveals that for its main and secondary actors, particularly those rising in stature in Paris, the Terror was an urban jungle of rival political networks, always changing, forever on the edge of betrayal. Fast-moving events and a Rousseauian expectation for transparency ironically yielded a local political culture in which personal relationships―what we inaccurately call friendships―assumed unusual importance." -- Gary Kates, American Historical Review
"Jeff Horn's new book provides an illuminating account of this astonishing story" -- K Steven Vincent, The European Legacy
"In this fascinating biography, Horn recounts the life of Alexandre Rousselin, a little-known French revolutionary. Born a poor Parisian in 1773, Rousselin worked as personal secretary to Camille Desmoulins and Georges Danton and oversaw the Terror in Troyes. Imprisoned and released five separate times in the aftermath, Rousselin served in the Ministry of War during the Directory and then kept a low profile under Napoleon. After 1815, he was a political liberal,...a supporter of King Louis Philippe, and founder of Le Constitutionnel, for many years the world's bestselling newspaper. This book is reminiscent of...Forrest Gump, as Rousselin constantly reappears at critical moments of French history from the Revolution until his death in 1843....Though well researched, with a firm base in archival sources and Rousselin's own published work, the book is popularly written with an eye toward engaging undergraduate students and general readers." -- CHOICE
"The amazing account of an enfant terrible of the French Revolution who, through a complex mixture of idealism and opportunism, survived each succeeding regime to become a wealthy liberal journalist under the Restoration and the July Monarchy; and who passed from personal secretary of Georges Danton, to the friend of Benjamin Constant ― and perhaps the lover of Josephine de Beauharnais ― the associate of Adolph Thiers, and even an acquaintance of King Louis-Philippe (who was godfather to his son). A spectacular story." -- Timothy Tackett, University of California, Irvine
"At the age of nineteen Alexandre Rousselin became an advocate of terror as an active revolutionary, trying to make a better world. He spent much of the rest of his long life, under a succession of political regimes, trying to live down his part in the heady years of the Revolution. Horn has made a compelling choice for a biographical study; he uses Rousselin's life to shine new light on the seismic years of the French Revolution and what it meant to become a revolutionary." -- Marisa Linton, author of Choosing Terror: Virtue, Friendship and Authenticity in the French Revolution
"Jeff Horn recounts the astonishing tale of a poor Parisian boy who somehow became the private secretary of Danton and Desmoulins, survived the deadliest days of the Revolution, and died a wealthy newspaper magnate and liberal noble. This is an illuminating story of brilliance, daring, and maneuvering." -- Peter McPhee, University of Melbourne
"A gripping account of a fascinating figure who traversed some of the most momentous eras in modern history. Jeff Horn has a rare talent for finding overlooked historical evidence and a keen sense of the dilemmas faced by anyone who survives a high-level engagement with revolutionary politics." -- Lynn Hunt, author of History: Why It Matters