The legacy of the French Revolution critiqued by the most important
thinkers of the day.
Gateway to the French Revolution features voices critical of the
French Revolution and its aftershocks. Edmund Burke's critique of the
Revolution is widely known and set into motion the development of
political Conservatism. Also decrying the excesses of the Terror is
Friedrich Gentz, a lesser-known Austrian diplomat who would become an
architect of European peace after Napoleon's failed ambitions, and
Joseph de Maistre, a Savoiard nobleman whose own reflections would form
a current of counter-revolutionary reactionary that has continues to
have implications in our contemporary world.