Gilded Youth of ThermidorThe jeunesse dorée, or "gilded youth," were a parallel militia recruited from the ranks of minor officials and small shopkeepers. They formed a distinctive subculture, defined by age and social origin, with their own forms of extravagant dress, their own anthem ("Le Réveil du Peuple"), their own affectations of speech, their own regular meeting-places in the cafés of the Palais-Royal, and even their own passwords, which were usually indirect references to Louis XVII. Gendron sees them as the shock-troops of the Thermidorian Convention, encouraged and sometimes employed by its Committee of General Security to force the pace of the reaction against the "terrorists," the sans-culottes. This provocation led to the uprisings of Germinal and Prairial and the consequent eviction of the sans-culottes from the political arena. Social historians such as Albert Soboul have written mainly about the sans-culottes at the peak of the Revolution. In focusing on the jeunesse dorée, Gendron highlights the ways in which, although initially used as a means to counteract the revolts of the sans-culottes, they were to become one of the driving forces of the reaction, carrying the Convention well beyond its political aims. This work, available in French since 1979, won the Médaille d'Argent du Prix Biguet (Académie Française). This translation will be welcomed by English-speaking historians and students of the French Revolution. |
Contents
Introduction | 3 |
The Political and Social Reaction | 30 |
The March toward Insurrection | 83 |
The Defeat of the SansCulottes | 147 |
The Failure of the Bourgeois Reaction | 164 |
| 211 | |
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Common terms and phrases
13 Vendémiaire 9 Thermidor accused André Dumont Armonville army Barère battalion bourgeoisie bread Brumaire Butte des Moulins buveurs de sang Café de Chartres called Carrousel citizens Committee of Public conscription Convention's crowd decree denounced deputies dorée's Duhem Duval Faubourg Antoine Floréal force France François Gendron Fréron Fréronists Fructidor galleries honnêtes gens insulted insurgents insurrection Jacobin Club Jardin jeunes gens jeunesse dorée Jullian Kilmaine L'Orateur du Peuple Lacretelle Legendre Long live lower classes Martainville Messager du Soir Messidor Montagnards muscadins National Guard Nivôse o'clock Palais Égalité Palais Royal pamphlet Panthéon Paris patriots Peletier Section people's representative Pluviôse political Prairial prison public opinion Public Safety Quinze Vingts Section Reaction reactionary rebels Republic Réveil du Peuple Revolution Robespierre rogues Rovère royalists sabres sans-culottes Security shouted soldiers streets Tallien terrorists Théâtre Français theatres Thermidorian Reaction Thermidorians troops Tuileries Vendémiaire Ventôse wanted women workers wrote young youths