The “Great Fear” (French grande peur), a term originating in the pioneering work of the historian Georges Lefebvre [4]; [5], denoted a wave of collective panics originating in the countryside that afflicted the French population from July 20 to August 6 1789. This was no organized movement, but a series of seven regional "waves". They began in individual villages, divided into several “streams” and spread, simultaneously, at a speed of around 5-14 km/h, across almost the whole of France. The exceptions were south…
Great Fear (778 words)
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Reichardt, Rolf, “Great Fear”, in: Encyclopedia of Early Modern History Online, Editors of the English edition: Graeme Dunphy, Andrew Gow. Original German Edition: Enzyklopädie der Neuzeit. Im Auftrag des Kulturwissenschaftlichen Instituts (Essen) und in Verbindung mit den Fachherausgebern herausgegeben von Friedrich Jaeger. Copyright © J.B. Metzlersche Verlagsbuchhandlung und Carl Ernst Poeschel Verlag GmbH 2005–2012. Consulted online on 01 April 2023 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/2352-0272_emho_SIM_020402>
First published online: 2015
First print edition: 20180915
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