Political Actors

From the start of the French Revolution, contemporary observers were struck by the overwhelming theatricality of political events. Examples of convergence between theater and politics included the election of dramatic actors to powerful political and...

Paul Friedland is Assistant Professor of History at Bowdoin College.

This is a book about a major conceptual development in political theory. And in terms of both argument and method, it is strikingly original and thoughtful. By focusing on an issue that was central to eighteenth-century epistemology and cultural life as well as democratic thought, Friedland succeeds in making concrete what would seem otherwise to be simply a metaphor: that revolutionary politics was a modern drama. And that makes this ambitious book itself an impressive performance.

Jeffrey Ravel, Massachusetts Institute of Technology:

Theoretical changes in theatrical and political representation also took place during the final decades of the Old Regime... but the shift in political representation was institutionalized in a single year.... Friedland achieves an impressive effect by anchoring this epistemological shift to the outbreak of the Revolution and by constructing a narrative of theatrical representation that also centers on the same year. The notorious political instability of the Revolution, and the turbulence in the French public theaters of the 1790s, were manifestations of this epochal shift in French strategies of representation. The argument, elegant and powerful, is made even more compelling by the clarity of Friedland's prose and the depth of his research.

Paul Friedland has developed a strong and provocative argument about how changes in abstract notions of representation—how one thing stands for another—shaped the emergence of new forms of political thought. He has uncovered remarkable and surprising parallels between changing ideas of representation in politics and in the world of theater, and also between the ideas of counter-revolutionary royalists on the one hand and the most radical Jacobins on the other. He uses these parallels to show why liberal ideas of representative democracy had such difficulty gaining acceptance in Revolutionary France.

In Political Actors, Paul Friedland explores wider connections between politics and theatre in the Revolution.... Complex innovations in the theory and practice of political representation are juxtaposed with more accessible theatrical innovations before and during the Revolution; both are read as manifestations of 'a fundamental revolution in representation itself', and so connected at a high level of abstraction.... Friedland presents a wealth of interesting and often unexpected exchanges between politics and theatre.

Keith Michael Baker, Stanford University:

This is a bold, ambitious, and cogently argued book. It should become required reading for anyone interested in the idea of representation or in the political culture of the Old Regime and the French Revolution.

Sarah Maza, Northwestern University:

This innovative contribution to French cultural and intellectual history elegantly juxtaposes the theory and practice of eighteenth-century drama with the rules governing political life before and during the Revolution. Bringing together these two domains, Paul Friedland documents the exclusion of 'the public' —as both spectators and citizens—from the newly separate stage and political assembly. This unusual coupling of drama and politics allows Friedland to bring fresh and provocative insights to our understanding of how public life was transformed during the most momentous years in French history. The book also implicitly invites us to reflect on the many overlaps between politics and entertainment in our own era.

Marie Helene Huet, Princeton University:

Political Actors offers new insights on the important question of political representation before and during the French Revolution. It also provides innovative material on pamphlet literature and theatrical history.

David A. Bell, The Johns Hopkins University:

Political Actors is one of the most important books written about the French Revolution in the past ten years. Paul Friedland advances a genuinely new and provocative interpretation of the Revolution as a whole.