Paris During the Terror Essay -- Papers Paris France Terror Essays Pap

Paris During the Terror This document in its original form as a speech is an unpublished document. However, because it has been translated and printed as a part of a book, it is now a published document. As a source for study, it has several strengths. Firstly, it is now a part of a recognized historical document. Secondly, it fulfills the criteria of being a relevant document because of the author’s proximity to the Paris Terror. It also provides good clues about the view points (however biased) of Jacques Roux and others like him living in Paris at that time. On the other hand, while this speech’s translation into English will ensure it reaches a wider audience, important nuances of the French language may have been lost in the crossover. As a result, significant connotations gained from a choice of French words may no longer be obvious and this may even affect the amount of unwitting testimony one might have been able to extract from it. Another weakness this speech will have is its bias. It is very obvious that Jacques Roux is passionate about the role of the government in the persecution of his people. The reader is presented with one side of the struggle without being aware of whether the government was in fact guilty of what it is charged with. The foot notes are also open to interpretation. How sure can the reader be of the accuracy of the information? While reading Jacques Roux’s speech, it may be difficult to decipher certain terms, one of which is the sans culottes. If one investigates, one will be faced with the task of interpreting which version was meant and used by Roux. In order to truly underst... ... by law’, merchants and traders should bear some moral responsibility towards the poverty stricken citizens of Paris. Although much of what Roux says can be checked against other documents of the era, his speech would be of significant use to a historian as except for the translation to English, it has not been manipulated in terms of personal interpretations or open to discussion. It is mainly for this reason that for a historian, Jacques Roux’s speech is a minefield of information about the personal struggles of a Parisian living during the Terror. Bibliography An Introduction to the Humanities. History, Classicism and Revolution. Block 3. Open University Press.1997 An Introduction to the Humanities. Resource Book 2. Open University Press. 1997 www.library.ttu.edu/ul/subjects/humanities/history/