The Gilded Youth of Thermidor

Leonard Adams is a professor of French Studies at the University of
Guelph.

In the aftermath of Robespierre’s fall (July 28, 1794), the gilded
youth, a motley crowd of absentee conscripts and bourgeois youth
released from prison, staged a political reaction that was to have
important repercussions for the direction French society was destined to
take in the following 15 months. The Thermidorian reaction, aimed mainly
at crushing surviving Jacobins, threatened to overtake the prerogatives
of the Convention. Using reliable sources, Gendron traces the evolution
of the relationship between the jeunesse dorée and the ruling cadres.
Beginning with their concerted efforts to eliminate the sans-culottes,
he follows closely the tragicomedy this confrontation produced; the
crisis of conscience that gripped the body delegated to steer the
country through the chaos resulting from the lawlessness of largely
uncontrolled youthful energy; the power struggle involving groups with
opposite vested interests; the triumphs and setbacks of the jeunesse
dorée; the switching of loyalties; and, finally, the use of French army
units to tame the young bourgeois elements.

The originality of Gendron’s work lies in the extraordinarily
accurate highlighting not only of the protagonists and events that
shaped politics in France from 9 Thermidor, Year II (Summer 1794), to 4
Brumairc, Year IV (Autumn 1795), but also of interesting details of the
paradoxical role the jeunesse dorée and the press played in this
political drama. The author draws attention to the significant
historical signposts along a path traversed by his predecessors.
Scholars should applaud Gendron for this mise au point and his fleshing
out of a story hastily told until recently.

The usefulness of the work would undoubtedly have been enhanced by the
addition of a carefully prepared index and by an indication, in brackets
perhaps, of the Gregorian calendar dates corresponding to those of the
Republican calendar. In spite of this inadequacy, and a few editorial
oversights, the highly readable translation has much to offer anglophone
readers with limited French who are willing to consult the original work
in search of annotated information the translation does not provide.