The French Revolution allowed for the meteoric rise of an idealistic provincial lawyer. During the Reign of Terror, Robespierre could have been king, but ultimately fell to the guillotine, like thousands of his victims. What explains his spectacular rise and fall?
In this talk to his Chinese high school students, Jiang Xueqin argues that Robespierre saw himself as the Prophet of the French Revolution, and was determined to achieve the Revolution no matter what.
For the weak and oppressed, Robespierre became Jesus, and as such he would come to share the same fate.
