3.2- The Broken Regime

The Ancien Regime was a mess in desperate need of reform.

Direct Link: 3.2- The Broken Regime

[Update: Fixed pronunciation of "taille."]

 

Comments

[Grandpa D]

My compliments to the five folks that helped out on French pronunciation. Nice work, folks. It shows.

[AC]

I butcher foreign words and people's names all the time. It's no big deal.
But if you're fixing pronunciation, there's also the matter of Alsace. Taille is more important but I understood it immediately (before the fix). I think most people who speak French and are interested in history would expect to hear you say that word and would therefore recognize it. But it took me a while to guess Alsace (assuming I guessed right).

[MHC]

I was a tiny bit skeptical about how you might approach the French Revolution, because many of the American writers on the French Revolution really focus on the purges and deaths it caused, but I shouldn't have doubted your immense talent. Awesome episode(s) thus far!

[Janet]

Fantastic episode. Out of curiosity, are you planning to go all the way up to Waterloo and the Congress of Vienna?

I'm also happy to hear that the Gentleman Johnny shirt is incoming.

[Ben]

I see you've posted a bibliography for England and America, and I'm sure you're planning to do the same for France as well once it's complete, but any suggestions for complimentary reading as we all take this tour through the French Revolution would be fantastic as well. More than almost any other period of history, I've found it hard to really absorb and understand all the various "organized" bodies that came and went over time -- the committee of 12, committee for public safety, legislative assembly, national assembly, the national convention and so many more (all these before one can even begin to delve into the various cliques and factions that drove the direction such bodies took...)

Anyway, if you've got any recommended readings for the early to mid period of the revolution (say, pre-revolution table-setting until the fall of Robespierre or so) that you think lays this stuff out clearly and memorably, I'd be much obliged.

Thanks for all the great work -- hope you're having a beautiful Madison summer.

[Tor]

About monetization; did you ever make a "Livia did it" T-shirt?