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Quote by Tom Reiss

“the concept, going back to the misty foundations of the nation, that France was the land of the free—that no one should be kept in unwilling servitude on its soil.” quote by Tom Reiss — Download Open image

““the concept, going back to the misty foundations of the nation, that France was the land of the free—that no one should be kept in unwilling servitude on its soil.””

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“energized and emboldened delegates of the Third Estate, the “99 percent”—in reality, closer to 96 percent—of the French population who paid the bulk of…

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“Suddenly Paris fashion-that bellwether for the French mind-had to be à l'Amérique: tailors manufactured "insurgent coats" and "lightning-conductor dresses" (in honor of Ben Franklin,…

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“The way it had originally worked was that each of the three estates got an equal say: each had an equal number of “deputies”…

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“The bitter irony was that the financial crisis had largely been caused by French support of the American patriots; in getting back at the…

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“Man is born free but is everywhere in chains,” wrote Jean-Jacques Rousseau in The Social Contract in 1762. A generation of crusading lawyers put…

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“When they weren’t running meat—or rum—they worked as salt miners or piloted small boats along the coast. These highland Saint-Dominguans, along with more recent…

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“Unhappiness cannot but draw tighter the bonds which hold us fast to one another," General Dumas had written to Marie-Louise as he made his…

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“Wednesday, June 17, 1789, France went from a system where only the nobility and the church had power to a system where, at least…

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“in 1788, he had become infatuated by the American republic and its spirit of “simplicity, goodness, and that dignity of man which is the…

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“Alex Dumas had the confidence that accompanies a life of physical exploits, along with an unwavering faith in the rightness of his actions that…

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“This mulatto gentleman could powder and dress as he liked, however, because he was acknowledged to be the greatest swordsman in Europe. Over the…

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