François Furet, the Revolution and the past future of the French Left

摘要

François Furet’s contribution to French history continues to incite controversy and polemic. His engagement with the French left and his ability to stir up venomous reactions from the left has obscured his real contribution and his status as a left-wing intellectual. Fresh readings of many of his lesser-known writings and a new reflection on little-known private archives helps us to understand how Furet thought of political history as being essentially bound up with a theoretical reflection on the relationship between the past, the present and the future, without which there could be no good history. Furet was a witness to the collapse of a left-wing culture that had defined him. His intellectual and political itinerary resonated with the upheavals that affected the French and European left at the end of the twentieth century.