Twelve Who Ruled

By R.R. Palmer

Book Overview

The years 1793 and 1794 marked the Reign of Terror of the French Revolution, a bloody period characterized by the brutal repression of those suspected of being counterrevolutionary. The so-called Committee of Public Safety, which directed the Terror, ordered 2,400 executions in July 1794 in Paris alone, and across France 30,000 people lost their lives. R. R. Palmer's Twelve Who Ruled is the classic study of the twelve men who made up the committee, the most famous of whom was Robespierre. Palmer approached each man as an individual, describing and explaining his inner motivations and dramatically portraying his revolutionary role. In addition, he saw the Committee of Public Safety as the prototype of modern dictatorships and the Reign of Terror as an early incarnation of the totalitarian state. Palmer's other great classic, also from Princeton, is his Age of the Democratic Revolution: A Political History of Europe and America , 1760-1800 in two volumes (vol. 1, The Challenge , 1959; vol. 2, The Struggle , 1964), for which Palmer received the prestigious Bancroft Prize in 1960. Palmer's key idea was that a single great democratic revolution against an entrenched aristocracy swept Western culture between 1760 and 1800, and that the American Revolution was the most important single event in precipitating this revolutionary era. These two volumes have been of singular significance for historians on both sides of the Atlantic and together with his Twelve Who Ruled established Palmer as one of the most important historians of his generation. This modern classic is being reissued in recognition of the bicentennial of the French Revolution. From a review of an earlier edition: "This is wholly an admirable book: it is based upon all the most recent researches and itself makes some original contributions to scholarship; it is written in a bright popular style and deserves as warm a welcome from the general reader as from the historian."--A.J.P. Taylor, Manchester Guardian

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0691007616
• ISBN13: 9780691007618
• Release Date: September 1970
• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Length: 440 Pages
• Weight: 1.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.5" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Great book!

I decided to read R.R. Palmer's The Twelve Who Ruled after having it recommended to me in class. The Year of the Terror and the Committee of Public Safety are often overlooked or not given enough description in history classes and it wasn't until my senior year in college that I had even heard of the Year of the Terror. Palmer's book is great for the student because he includes enough background information so that one can understand the information without feeling overwhelmed. The text deals almost exclusively the events from the summer of 1793 through the summer of 1794. Because so much happened in this one year period, Palmer presents it on an almost day-to-day status. Originally written in 1939 and 1940, Palmer mentions in the Bibliographical Essay how difficult it was to gather information from the French archives, but upon reading this book and having some basic knowledge of the events of the period, one finds it difficult to find any deficiency in Palmer's work. The 2005 edition of The Twelve Who Ruled opens with a new foreword by Isser Woloch, Moore Collegiate Professor of History at Columbia University. In this foreword, Woloch gives the reader a little history of Palmer's book, as well as a brief overview of the events detailed in the book. Palmer begins his book with a one page list, titled "The Twelve", of the members of the CPS and gives a brief one-line description of each. On the next page is a sketched map with the locations and provinces mentioned in his book, as well as a translation of the Republican Calendar. I don't want to go into detail about all of Palmer's 15 chapters, but some need mentioning. The first chapter, "Twelve Terrorists to Be", gives a detailed description about the history of each member of the Committee of Public Safety leading up to the Revolution. The subsequent chapters describe the different political groups of the Revolution and how the CPS came to be as powerful as it did. Chapters 6-9 deal with the individual missions of the CPS members to different parts of France. Chapter 6, "Republic in Miniature", describes Georges Couthon's mission to his native region of Clermont-Ferrand and his attempt to turn Puy-de-Dôme into a model for the Republic. Chapter 7, "Doom at Lyons", is self-explanatory and deals with Collot d'Herbois and the Committee's shocking actions in Lyons. Chapters 8 and 9 deal with the missions of Committee members to Alsace and Brittany to deal with the army and naval affairs in those regions, respectively. The beginning of the end becomes apparent in chapter 11, "Finding the Narrow Way". In this chapter Danton makes his return to Paris and Robespierre and other members of the Committee are becoming more and more adamant in their positions. The remaining chapters detail the downfall of the Committee of Public Safety and the numerous executions that take place. The exception to this is chapter 14, "The Rush upon Europe", which describes the military even

Excellent history, well written, interesting, a focus on character.

This is an excellent book, well written, clear and concise. It focuses on the Year of the Terror during the French Revolution. There are several strengths to this book. First, Palmer does an excellent job of giving short biographies of the major characters that ruled France as a committee during this period. They include Carnot,the military officer who maintained the war office during the terror,including defending the northern border of France. Collot D'Herbois, the ex-actor and fanatic had a very different temprement from the monk-like Robespierre. Saint-Just's attacks against the Dantonists was fascinating. The fall of Herault de Sechelles, the philosopher former aristocrat is very interesting. Second, the chapters are very well organized. They are aranged around topics, including a hyistory of how the Comitteee for Public Safety evolved in the fifth year of the revolution; three chapters on maintaining control of the other regions of France during the revolution; chapters on foreign conflicts; a chapter on wage and price control and maintaining a central economy, are all well written and interesting. I read the book after reading Hilary Mantel's novel "A Place of Greater Safety" regarding the relationship and competition between Robespierre and Danton. The two books perfectly compliment each other. This is a very accessible history of this portion of the revolution and is extremely informative. It was written in 1941 but is fresh, current, and alive with detail.

Insightful Book about a Little Understood Time

In my college Western Civilization course years ago, we read a speech Robespierre gave during a festival created by the revolutionary government. After discussing this speech for a while, we passed on to Napoleon, but before we did, one student asked the professor for recommendations for further reading on the Reign of Terror. He mentioned Twelve Who Ruled. I didn't run out and buy the book, but I did keep in the back of my mind, and whenever I browsed the history shelves of a bookstore or library, I kept an eye out for it. Several years later, I ran across the book and, after reading it, I am quite glad that I did.The Reign of Terror is, of course, a fascinating period of history that usually gets short shrift in high school or college classes. One hears of guillotines and revolutionaries run wild, killing each other for not being radical enough. This book fleshes out the story and dispels some myths about it.Robespierre was a member of the Committee on Public Safety, a legislative committee that was part of the National Assembly, France's short-lived revolutionary parliament set up in the 1790s. The Committee consisted of twelve people, hence the title of the book: "The Twelve Who Ruled." Palmer describes how the Committee functions and gives a very plausible explanation for the reasons behind Robespierre's and his fellow committee members' actions. Given the nature of the period, it is no surprise that the book is not boring. But Palmer did not sacrifice academic rigor for readability.I recommend this book for anyone interested in history or political science.

Unbiased and entertaining account of the Terror

Unlike many books written on the Reign of Terror, "Twelve Who Ruled" takes a refreshingly unbiased, as well as entertaining, view of all angles and opinions. This book's primary focus is on the Committee of Public Safety, a major governing body of France during the Terror. Detailed descriptions of the Committee's twelve members are helpful in determining the causes of the Terror, as well as the motives behind them. The author also provides several interesting and detailed descriptions of the wars in and around France, and how they directly affected the citizens and the government. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in the French Revolution.

Well documented and entertaining

Probably the only available book for the non-specialist on this period, even taking into account French sources. Very interesting and well written, it reads like a novel, or rather like a theater play. A must for anyone interested in the period.