Regicide and Revolution: Speeches at the Trial of Louis XVI

by Michael Walzer (Editor)

Maintaining that the trial and public execution of Louis XVI was an absolutely essential part of the French Revolution, Walzer discusses two types of regicide: the first, committed by would-be kings or their agents, left the monarchy's mystique and divine right intact, while the second was a revolutionary act intended to destroy it completely.

Walzer defends the trial and execution of Louis XVI as necessary, since it not only tried to destroy the monarchy's mystique and divine right, but also required the deputies to fully explain their guiding philosophies and applied the rules of judicial process to establish equality before the law.

New to this edition is an appendix containing "Revolutionary Justice," Ferenc Feher's classic rebuttal to Walzer's thesis, and Walzer's response, "The King's Trial and the Political Culture of the Revolution."

Genres: History, French Revolution

272 pages, Hardcover

First published February 22, 1974

About the author

Michael Walzer is a Jewish American political philosopher and public intellectual. A professor emeritus at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey, he is editor of the political-intellectual quarterly Dissent. He has written books and essays on a wide range of topics, including just and unjust wars, nationalism, ethnicity, economic justice, social criticism, radicalism, tolerance, and political obligation and is a contributing editor to The New Republic. To date, he has written 27 books and published over 300 articles, essays, and book reviews in Dissent, The New Republic, The New York Review of Books, The New Yorker, The New York Times, and many scholarly journals

Reviews

[Cindy Potts · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm not a student of French history, so I learned a lot that surprised me in this book. Walzer argues that Louis XVI needed to die twice, once as a man and once as a symbol. The text includes many well written speeches from the time, including one from Thomas Paine, who argued in vain that Louis be allowed to live in exile in the US of America.

[Nathan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This books reminds us of a difficult political shift that we all now take for granted. Once, the king was believed to own the country, and the citizens were allowed to live on his lands at his good will. Now, governments are perceived as subject to the good will of the citizens, their ministers and servants. This book analyzes the role of two acts of regicide in producing that change.

[Lori Zibel · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was assigned for a history class I took. Usually I skim my course readings but I actually read this one and it was great. Walzer's consideration of the political significance of Louis XVI's trial, and the debates before, were insightful.

[Raully]

Little more than a transcript of the trial. It makes for some hard reading but also a sense of immediacy.