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Twelve Who Ruled Essay

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Twelve Who Ruled Book Review

The year of terror is one of the most complex and misunderstood periods in the French Revolution. Palmer, in his book, Twelve Who Ruled, however, takes this period and skillfully turns it into a written masterpiece. The book is narrated from the point of view of someone with an omniscient knowledge of the subject matter, who is reflecting back on the period from the outside.
The book tells the story of a brief moment in history when twelve men (Robespierre, Barere, Saint Just, Couthon, Lindet, Carnot, Saint-Andre, Prieur, Varenne, Herbois, Scholles, and Duvernois) ruled France; even though they were technically under the control of the Convention. …show more content…

This can be seen when Palmer compares the other member to Robespierre. After the personal history of each of the twelve men, Palmer moves right in and starts discussing how and why the Committee of Public Safety was formed, and how it came to power. After this, he maneuvers circumspectly into how the committee used this power to purge the nation of "counter revolutionaries," who needed but offend the sensitive ears of Robespierre to be executed. He then moves along chronologically to the height of the Committee's power and eventually describes the decline and eventual demise of the reign of terror. This is signified by the execution of Robespierre, who was designated as the instigator of the terror. It is in his death that the terror culminated, and along with it, this book.
This book is considerably effective as a narrative biography of the "Twelve Who Ruled." Through his eloquent use of detail and his elegant ability to paint a superb picture which incorporates both the lives and actions of the men in power and the essence and accomplishments of the Committee of Public Safety as a whole he tells the story of the Reign of Terror. It is his intermixing of the two, along with his representation of the day that makes this book so "Thoroughly sound, eminently readable," and representative of great narrative writing.
Throughout this book,

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