Jean-Sylvain Bailly: Revolutionary Mayor of Paris

By: Gene A. Brucker

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Synopsis: A study of Jean Sylvain Bailly (1736-1793), the French astronomer, mathematician, freemason, and political leader of the early part of the French Revolution.“IT IS CHARACTERISTIC of great revolutions that they are initiated by moderate men, who desire only limited reforms and who are most reluctant to resort to violence to obtain their ends. So began the French Revolution, and such a moderate was Jean-Sylvain Bailly, who, as mayor of Paris during the years 1789-91, struggled to maintain a balance between the two extremes of radicalism and reaction. He failed and paid for his failure on the guillotine. A study of his mayoral regime throws interesting light on these moderates in the early days of the Revolution, their character and aims, the problems which faced them and their attempts to solve them, the manner in which they strived to keep themselves in power, and how they failed.”