George Harrell: A Conservative Rethinking of the French Revolution

The French Revolution has entered the popular imagination as a class conflict arising from Rousseau’s Enlightenment philosophy. However, if we analyze the French revolutions of 1789 and 1792 with a proper historical approach that appreciates the true nature of human action, we discover that the motivations behind these events were far more complex, and even conservative, than have been popularly portrayed. Understanding this affects how we compare and contrast the French Revolution with the American Revolution, and how we understand the broader role of ideology in social movements. George Buchanan was a late 16th-century Scottish Reformed thinker who used Scripture, history, and the natural law to argue for the restraint of civil rulers, the resistance to tyranny, and the freedom of Christian citizens. Like its namesake, the George Buchanan Forum is a community of liberty-minded Christians seeking to integrate theology, political theory, economics, and history. Learn more at <a href="https://www.tgbf.org/">https://www.tgbf.org/</a>