2012/08/03 by Robert Tombs · 1 citation
Arts and Humanities · Psychology · #Historical Studies and Socio-cultural Analysis #European Political History Analysis #French Historical and Cultural Studies #History #Narrative #Death toll #Affect (linguistics) #Politics #Government (linguistics) #Ethnology #Demography #Literature #Art #Psychology #Sociology #Political science #Law #Philosophy
paper · doi:10.1017/s0018246x12000222
openalex publication_date 2012/08/03 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/30
ABSTRACT The dominant memory of the Paris Commune has been of disproportionate violence wreaked on the Communards by a brutal government. However, accounts of the extent of the bloodshed rest on flimsy foundations. A range of archival evidence suggests that the death toll has been greatly exaggerated, and a revised estimate is here proposed. How and why the number of deaths became crucial to the history of the Commune from an early date is explored. If the killing was in reality on a far less apocalyptic scale, how does this affect the narrative of nineteenth-century French politics and its ‘memory’?