The political pamphlet was an important medium for debate in revolutionary France. Exposes of government abuses in the old regime, treatises on finance, proposals for new systems of government, political denunciations, and eulogies for revolutionary heroes were some of the themes of these brief, often cheaply printed tracts. In the four years after Louis XVI called for a meeting of the Estates General in 1788, France's printing presses issued a torrent of over 10,000 pamphlets. This was in contrast to the 1000 published for the years 1787-1788 and slightly more than 300 for 1774-1786.
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This tract by Abbe Sieyes, outlining the complaints and rights of the Third Estate, is the opening manifesto of the French Revolution. In the crisis of 1788, Necker asked Sieyes for his opinions on the Constitution of the General Estates. The pamphlet starts with the famous lines: "What is the Third Estate? -- Everything." "What has it been hitherto in the political order? -- Nothing." "What does it desire? -- To be something." |
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