How can you say your favorite time period is the early 1700s to 1820s and not include the French Revolution in your list of why! I know there was some back-and-forth with the American and French Revolutions, with Thomas Jefferson being in Paris for parts of it and Thomas Paine being an influence on some of the philosophes over there, but I don't know to what extent. How big of an influence was American Revolutionary thought on French Revolutionary thought?

By: vivian on domingo, fevereiro 08, 2015

Huge. Let’s put it this way: no one thought it could be done. Revolution for democracy was literally inconceivable — no one thought about it. Revolutions to replace the king, sure, but to put the people on top? Inconceivable. Until the Americans did it. Their successful example was more powerful than any rhetoric or philosophy.

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