This book is both an analysis of the Bastille as cultural paradigm and a case study on the history of French political culture. It examines in particular the storming and subsequent fall of the Bastille in Paris on July 14, 1789, and how it came to represent the cornerstone of the French Revolution, becoming a symbol of the repression of the Old Regime.
Inhaltsverzeichnis
Editors' Introduction vii
Preface xvii
Translator's Note xix
Introduction 1
Genesis of a Political Symbol: The Bastille, 1715-1789 6
The Storming of the Bastille: The Historical Event as a Collective Symbol Action 38
Revolutionary Symbolism under the Sign of the Bastille, 1789-1799: A Prime Example of the Self-Mystification of the French Revolution 79
Bastille Symbolism in Modern France: The Republican Legacy of the French Revolution 205
Final Remarks: On the Origin and Function of a Historical Symbol 241
Appendix: Reports on the Storming of the Bastille, 1789 247
Notes 251
Works Cited 287
Index 297
