Not-so-clandestine Conspirators: Jacobin Ideas of Secrecy and Property and their Legacies
By the French Revolution, the drive for transparency was a defining feature of the political culture. Conspiracies and the fear of conspiracies were common and widespread during and after the Revolution. This project examines one such conspiracy in the later years of the French Revolution and explores the political thought of its would-be conspirators. I focus on the writings of French revolutionaries Babeuf, Buonarroti, and those of their circle during and after what is known as the Babeuf Conspiracy, or the Conspiracy of the Equals in 1797.