Lessons from America

Liberal French Nobles in Exile, 1793–1798

Doina Pasca Harsanyi

• Publisher: Penn State University Press
• Year: 2015
• ISBN:
  9780271051123
• Topic: Histoire
• Subtopic: Histoire de la France

Every war has refugees; every revolution has exiles. Most of the refugees of the French Revolution mourned the demise of the monarchy. Lessons from America examines an unusual group who did not. Doina Pasca Harsanyi looks at the American experience of a group of French liberal aristocrats, early participants in the French Revolution, who took shelter in Philadelphia during the Reign of Terror. The book traces their path from enlightened salons to revolutionary activism to subsequent exile in America and, finally, back to government posts in France—illuminating the ways in which the French experiment in democracy was informed by the American experience.

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• Library of Congress
• Table of Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• 1. Aristocrats and Liberal Nobles on the Eve of the Revolution
• 2. Moreau’s Circle of Friends
• 3. What to Expect When Landing in America
• 4. The American Home Away from Home
• 5. Politics, Business, and the Future of France
• 6. American Influences Under the Directory
• Conclusion: Waiting for Tocqueville
• Notes
• Selected Bibliography
• Index
• Back Cover