For these groups, the Revolution wasn't just about the right to vote; it was about the right to exist. While the bourgeoisie wanted "liberty" (the freedom to trade), the masses wanted "equality" (the end of hunger and exploitation). The Radical Peak: 1793 and the Sans-Culottes
The socialist "hero" of the Revolution is not the moderate Mirabeau or even the early Lafayette, but the radical movement of 1793. During this phase, the sans-culottes pushed the Jacobins to implement policies that look remarkably like early socialism. A socialist history of the French revolution
For socialists, the Revolution is not a closed chapter of history but an ongoing project. It provided the vocabulary of class struggle and the first practical experiments in state-managed equality, leaving a "specter" that would eventually haunt Europe in 1848, 1871, and 1917. For these groups, the Revolution wasn't just about