TORCH Goes Digital! presents a series of weekly live events Big Tent – Live Events!

Part of the Humanities Cultural Programme, one of the founding stones for the future Stephen A. Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities.

In collaboration with the Voltaire Foundation, TORCH is delighted to support the Annual Besterman Lecture, 2020

Besterman Lecture 2020 ‘Who were the French Revolutionaries?’ by Professor William Doyle

Live Event: Thursday 19th November 2020, 5.00pm – 6.00pm

Watch the live event here: youtu.be/G9toHR3YCLk

Introduced by Karen O’Brien (Head of Humanities Division, Oxford University) and Gregory S. Brown (General Editor of Oxford University Studies in the Enlightenment and Senior Research Fellow, Voltaire Foundation). Moderated by Professor Lauren Clay, Vanderbilt University.

When Napoleon in 1799 declared that the French Revolution was over, he said that was because it was now established on the principles with which it began. The implication was that much of what had happened over the preceding decade of upheaval had not been in accordance with those principles. Napoleon took care, of course, not to state what they were: his constitution was the first since 1789 not to contain a declaration of basic rights. Yet everyone during the Revolution claimed to be acting on revolutionary principles, or denounced their opponents for betraying them. Can we distinguish between those who held to and those who ignored or compromised revolutionary aspirations? This lecture will make the attempt, challenging some of the most enduring assumptions in revolutionary historiography.