Jean-Paul Marat

"In this monumental work, influential historian Keith Michael Baker takes readers on a journey through the life of Jean-Paul Marat (1743-1793). Starting with Marat's family and upbringing, Baker then sheds light into Marat's early years in England, his career as an aspiring scientist (including his writings on fire, light, and electricity), his gradual transformation from pamphleteer to revolutionary newspaperman, and, finally, his murder and martyrdom. Throughout, Baker offers readers the unique opportunity to reconsider the lead-up and development of the French Revolution through Marat's eyes and in his words. To help make sense of Marat's trajectory, Baker focuses on his subject's lifelong distrust of representation, from the political realm to the scientific and back again. Just as Marat railed against the abstract representation of natural forces in scientific discourse, so, too, in his political thought, he preferred direct embodiment. The Revolution, with its debates between sovereignty represented (in national assemblies) and sovereignty embodied (in the people) provided the perfect occasion for Marat's escalating rhetoric of denunciation and purge. Baker shows how Marat's incendiary public calls to render unseen forces visible, for immediacy in an increasingly abstract modern world, would transform classical republicanism into the language of the Terror"-- Provided by publisher.

Keith Michael Baker is the J. E. Wallace Sterling Professor in the Humanities, professor of history, and professor (by courtesy) of French and Italian, emeritus, at Stanford University. He is the author or editor of several books on the Enlightenment and the French Revolution.