R onen S teinberg . The Afterlives of the Terror

Innovatively applying modern debates over mass trauma and transitional justice to the study of the Thermidorian era, Ronen Steinberg’s The Afterlives of the Terror: Facing the Legacies of Mass Violence in Postrevolutionary France examines how French Revolutionaries sought to come to terms with the violence of the Terror (1792–94). As after more recent atrocities, Steinberg argues the French had to find ways “to transform a series of chaotic experiences into a narrative that made sense” (8). While resolution proved fleeting for the Terror’s survivors, in their searching they pioneered new methods of collective accusation, reconciliation, victimization, and remembrance. Steinberg freely borrows theoretical concepts developed for more contemporary atrocities, examining the root similarities between the French experience post-Thermidor and those following the Holocaust, South African apartheid, and Latin American military dictatorships. The broad impacts of trauma, medically defined here as “mental disassociation” (11) from extreme events, motivated the French to find...

Art · Criminology · Democracy · Dictatorship · False accusation · Literature · Narrative · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Terrorism · The Holocaust · War on terror · Communism, Protests, Social Movements · Historical Studies and Socio-cultural Analysis · History · Law · Vietnamese History and Culture Studies