| Introduction: The Revision of History | 11 |
Part I | The Psychological Elements of Revolutionary Movements | |
Book I | General Characteristics of Revolutions | |
Chapter I. | Scientific and Political Revolutions | 23 |
1. | Classification of Revolutions | 23 |
2. | Scientific Revolutions | 25 |
3. | Political Revolutions | 26 |
4. | The results of Political Revolutions | 31 |
Chapter II. | Religious Revolutions | 34 |
1. | The importance of the study of Religious Revolutions in respect of the comprehension of the great Political Revolutions | 34 |
2. | The beginnings of the Reformation and its first disciples | 35 |
3. | Rational value of the doctrines of the Reformation | 37 |
4. | Propagation of the Reformation | 39 |
5. | Conflict between different religious beliefs. The impossibility of tolerance | 40 |
6. | The results of Religious Revolutions | 46 |
Chapter III. | The Action of Governments in Revolutions | 49 |
1. | The feeble resistance of Governments in time of Revolution | 49 |
2. | How the resistance of Governments may overcome Revolution | 53 |
3. | Revolutions effected by Governments. Examples: China, Turkey, &c. | 54 |
4. | Social elements which survive the changes of Government after Revolution | 58 |
Chapter IV. | The Part Played by the People in Revolutions | 60 |
1. | The stability and malleability of the national mind | 60 |
2. | How the People regards Revolution | 63 |
3. | The supposed part of the People during Revolution | 66 |
4. | The popular entity and its constituent elements | 69 |
Book II | The forms of Mentality Prevalent During Revolution | |
Chapter I. | Individual Variations of Character in time of Revolution | 75 |
1. | Transformations of Personality | 75 |
2. | Elements of character predominant in time of Revolution | 77 |
Chapter II. | The Mystic Mentality and the Jacobin Mentality | 86 |
1. | Classification of mentalities predominant in time of Revolution | 86 |
2. | The Mystic Mentality | 87 |
3. | The Jacobin Mentality | 92 |
Chapter III. | The Revolutionary and Criminal Mentalities | 97 |
1. | The Revolutionary Mentality | 97 |
2. | The Criminal Mentality | 99 |
Chapter IV. | The Psychology of Revolutionary Crowds | 102 |
1. | General characteristics of the crowd | 102 |
2. | How the stability of the racial mind limits the oscillations of the mind of the crowd | 105 |
3. | The role of the leader in Revolutionary Movements | 109 |
Chapter V. | The Psychology of the Revolutionary Assemblies | 113 |
1. | Psychological characteristics of the great Revolutionary Assemblies | 113 |
2. | The Psychology of the Revolutionary Clubs | 116 |
3. | A suggested explanation of the progressive exaggeration of sentiments in assemblies | 119 |
Part II |
Book I | The Origins of the French Revolution | |
Chapter I. | The Opinions of Historians concerning the French Revolution | 123 |
1. | The Historians of the Revolution | 123 |
2. | The theory of Fatalism in respect of the Revolution | 126 |
3. | The hesitation of recent Historians of the Revolution | 130 |
4. | Impartiality in History | 133 |
Chapter II. | The Psychological Foundations of the Ancien Regime | 137 |
1. | The Absolute Monarchy and the Basis of the Ancien Regime | 137 |
2. | The inconveniences of the Ancien Regime | 138 |
3. | Life under the Ancien Regime | 141 |
4. | Evolution of Monarchical feeling during the Revolution | 144 |
Chapter III. | Mental Anarchy at the time of the Revolution and the influence attributed to the Philosophers | 147 |
1. | Origin and Propagation of Revolutionary Ideas | 147 |
2. | The supposed influence of the Philosophers of the eighteenth century upon the Genesis of the Revolution. Their dislike of Democracy | 152 |
3. | The philosophical ideas of the Bourgeoisie at the time of the Revolution | 156 |
Chapter IV. | Psychological Illusions respecting the French Revolution | 158 |
1. | Illusions respecting Primitive Man, the return to the State of Nature, and the Psychology of the People | 158 |
2. | Illusions respecting the possibility of separating Man from his Past and the power of Transformation attributed to the Law | 160 |
3. | Illusions respecting the Theoretical Value of the great Revolutionary Principles | 162 |
Book II | The Rational, Affective, Mystic, and Collective Influences Active During the Revolution | |
Chapter I. | The Psychology of the Constituent Assembly | 167 |
1. | Psychological influences active during the French Revolution | 167 |
2. | Dissolution of the Ancien Regime. The assembling of the States-General | 170 |
3. | The constituent Assembly | 172 |
Chapter II. | The Psychology of the Legislative Assembly | 183 |
1. | Political events during the life of the Legislative Assembly | 183 |
2. | Mental characteristics of the Legislative Assembly | 185 |
Chapter III. | The Psychology of the Convention | 190 |
1. | The Legend of the Convention | 190 |
2. | Results of the triumph of the Jacobin Religion | 193 |
3. | Mental characteristics of the Convention | 197 |
Chapter IV. | The Government of the Convention | 202 |
1. | The activity of the Clubs and the Commune during the Convention | 202 |
2. | The Government of France during the Convention: the Terror | 205 |
3. | The End of the Convention. The Beginnings of the Directory | 210 |
Chapter V. | Instances of Revolutionary Violence | 213 |
1. | Psychological Causes of Revolutionary Violence | 213 |
2. | The Revolutionary Tribunals | 215 |
3. | The Terror in the Provinces | 218 |
Chapter VI. | The Armies of the Revolution | 223 |
1. | The Revolutionary Assemblies and the Armies | 223 |
2. | The Struggle of Europe against the Revolution | 224 |
3. | Psychological and Military Factors which determined the success of the Revolutionary Armies | 227 |
Chapter VII. | Psychology of the Leaders of the Revolution | 232 |
1. | Mentality of the men of the Revolution. The respective influence of violent and feeble characters | 232 |
2. | Psychology of the Commissaries or Representatives "on Mission" | 234 |
3. | Danton and Robespierre | 238 |
4. | Fouquier-Tinville, Marat, Billaud-Varenne, &c. | 245 |
5. | The destiny of those Members of the Convention who survived the Revolution | 250 |
Book III | The Conflict Between Ancestral Influences and Revolutionary Principles | |
Chapter I. | The Last Convulsions of Anarchy. The Directory | 252 |
1. | Psychology of the Directory | 252 |
2. | Despotic Government of the Directory. Recrudescence of the Terror | 255 |
3. | The Advent of Bonaparte | 259 |
4. | Causes of the Duration of the Revolution | 262 |
Chapter II. | The Restoration of Order. The Consular Republic | 265 |
1. | How the work of the Revolution was confirmed by the Consulate | 265 |
2. | The re-organisation of France by the Consulate | 267 |
3. | Psychological elements which determined the success of the work of the Consulate | 270 |
Chapter III. | Political Results of the Conflict between Traditions and the Revolutionary Principles during the last Century | 275 |
1. | The psychological causes of the continued Revolutionary Movements to which France has been subject | 275 |
2. | Summary of a century's Revolutionary Movements in France | 280 |
Part III | The Recent Evolution of the Revolutionary Principles | |
Chapter I. | The Progress of Democratic Beliefs since the Revolution | 289 |
1. | Gradual propagation of Democratic Ideas after the Revolution | 289 |
2. | The unequal influence of the three fundamental principles of the Revolution | 292 |
3. | The Democracy of the "Intellectuals" and Popular Democracy | 293 |
4. | Natural Inequalities and Democratic Equalisation | 296 |
Chapter II. | The Results of Democratic Evolution | 300 |
1. | The influence upon social evolution of theories of no rational value | 300 |
2. | The Jacobin Spirit and the Mentality created by Democratic Beliefs | 302 |
3. | Universal Suffrage and its representatives | 307 |
4. | The craving for Reforms | 310 |
5. | Social distinctions in Democracies and Democratic Ideas in various countries | 312 |
Chapter III. | The New Forms of Democratic Belief | 316 |
1. | The conflict between Capital and Labour | 316 |
2. | The evolution of the Working Classes and the Syndicalist Movement | 318 |
3. | Why certain modern Democratic Governments are gradually being transformed into Governments by Administrative Castes | 322 |
| Conclusions | 326 |