The French Revolution continues to fascinate historians. The political culture which it is said to have spawned has become a particularly salient feature in its recent historiography. Many have argued that the discrepancy between the hopes that the Revolution initially generated and the destruction, war, and terror that followed was the inevitable result of this culture. Within this framework, the defeat of the constitutional proposals of the group of moderate politicians known as the Monarchiens has been portrayed as the Revolutions missed opportunity to avoid the violence of the...