« The night of August 4, which has since been seen as a moment of unity, actually aggravates rivalries and frustrations »

« While the rebels of the Vendée and the federalists of Lyon are subjected to an increasingly violent repression, Robespierre shows his disapproval towards the men who are responsible, Ronsin, Collot d'Herbois and Fouché in Lyon, Carrier in Nantes... »

« The history that historians make is for its most part nourished by collective and personal tragedies and tragedies, transmuted by memories, ideologies and imaginations. The writing mixes the concern of eyebrow-raising scholarship, critical of the testimonies, attentive to the context, to the respect of suffering, as well as to the mysteries of individuals, while obliging himself to be interested in the distortions, even the fantasies, which were born, inevitably, of the worst episodes known by humanity. It is this range, developed mainly from the revolutionary period, that is the subject of this book, reflecting one of the steps I have taken for years. »