Famous Dates in The Republican Calendar and Other Cultural References
See also: Glossary of the French Revolution#Events commonly known by their Revolutionary datesThe "18 Brumaire" or "Brumaire" was the coup d'état of Napoleon Bonaparte on 18 Brumaire An VIII (9 November 1799), which many historians consider as the end of the French Revolution. Karl Marx' 1852 pamphlet The 18th Brumaire of Louis Napoléon compares the 1851 coup of Louis Napoléon to his uncle's earlier coup.
Another famous revolutionary date is 9 Thermidor An II (27 July 1794), the date the Convention turned against Robespierre, who, along with others associated with the Mountain, was guillotined the following day. Based on this event, the term "Thermidorian" entered the Marxist vocabulary as referring to revolutionaries who destroy the revolution from the inside and turn against its true aims. For example, Leon Trotsky and his followers used this term about Joseph Stalin.
Émile Zola's novel Germinal takes its name from the calendar.
The seafood dish lobster thermidor was probably named after the 1891 play Thermidor, set during the Revolution.
The French frigates of the Floréal class all bear names of Republican months.
The Convention of 9 Brumaire An III, 30 October 1794, established the École Normale Supérieure. The date appears prominently on the entrance to the school.
The French composer Fromental Halévy was named after the feast day of 'Fromental' in the Revolutionary Calendar, which occurred on his birthday in year VIII (27 May 1799).
Read more about this topic: French Republican Calendar
Famous quotes containing the words famous, dates, republican, calendar and/or cultural:
“Celebrity-worship and hero-worship should not be confused. Yet we confuse them every day, and by doing so we come dangerously close to depriving ourselves of all real models. We lose sight of the men and women who do not simply seem great because they are famous but are famous because they are great. We come closer and closer to degrading all fame into notoriety.”
—Daniel J. Boorstin (b. 1914)
“Nothing dates one so dreadfully as to think someplace is uptown.... At our age one must be watchful of these conversational gray hairs.”
—Ruth Gordon (1896–1985)
“In entertainment value, the Democratic clambake usually lays it over the Republican conclave like ice cream over parsnips.”
—Walter Wellesley (Red)
“To divide one’s life by years is of course to tumble into a trap set by our own arithmetic. The calendar consents to carry on its dull wall-existence by the arbitrary timetables we have drawn up in consultation with those permanent commuters, Earth and Sun. But we, unlike trees, need grow no annual rings.”
—Clifton Fadiman (b. 1904)
“At times it seems that the media have become the mainstream culture in children’s lives. Parents have become the alternative. Americans once expected parents to raise their children in accordance with the dominant cultural messages. Today they are expected to raise their children in opposition to it.”
—Ellen Goodman (20th century)