French and German Masses in the Revolution

Abstract

In their theorizations of mass society, a concept which emerged in the first half of the twentieth century, cultural critics and political philosophers have often referred to the Paris of 1793–94. The period is referred to as a means of showing that the ›masses‹ were inherently problematic. The accounts of both cultural critics and political philosophers are remarkable in the diversity of motifs, themes and ways of writing history which they display. They are equally remarkable for the common concern they show with the nature of the relationship between Enlightenment and revolution. Further, such accounts present the Enlightenment as the work of an intellectual elite, and the revolution as the activity of the masses. At this point, it would be useful to quote a representative sample of critics and philosophers.