The two great fears of 1789

Abstract

The purpose of the author in engaging with the two great fears of 1789 in France is mainly to illustrate various emotional mechanisms that almost certainly had some causal role in the events. The action ultimately chosen by the Assembly was neither to fight nor to flee, but to try to defuse the danger by acting on its causes. Although not one of the spontaneous action tendencies of fear, the author shows the action was to a large extent an emotional rather than a rational response. © The Author(s) 2011.