Jacques René Hébert (; 15 November 1757 – 24 March 1794) was a French journalist and leader of the
French Revolution. As the founder and editor of the radical newspaper ''
Le Père Duchesne
''Le Père Duchesne'' (; "Old Man Duchesne" or "Father Duchesne") was an extreme radical newspaper during the French Revolution, edited by Jacques Hébert, who published 385 issues from September 1790 until eleven days before his death by gu ...
'', he had thousands of followers known as ''the
Hébertists'' (French ''Hébertistes''). A proponent of the
Reign of Terror
The Reign of Terror (French: ''La Terreur'', literally "The Terror") was a period of the French Revolution when, following the creation of the French First Republic, First Republic, a series of massacres and Capital punishment in France, nu ...
, he was eventually
guillotined.
Early life
Jacques René Hébert was born on 15 November 1757 in
Alençon
Alençon (, , ; ) is a commune in Normandy, France, and the capital of the Orne department. It is situated between Paris and Rennes (about west of Paris) and a little over north of Le Mans. Alençon belongs to the intercommunality of Alen� ...
into a
Protestant
Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that emphasizes Justification (theology), justification of sinners Sola fide, through faith alone, the teaching that Salvation in Christianity, salvation comes by unmerited Grace in Christianity, divin ...
Huguenot
The Huguenots ( , ; ) are a Religious denomination, religious group of French people, French Protestants who held to the Reformed (Calvinist) tradition of Protestantism. The term, which may be derived from the name of a Swiss political leader, ...
family, to goldsmith, former trial judge, and deputy consul Jacques Hébert (died 1766) and Marguerite Beunaiche de Houdrie (1727–1787).
Hébert studied law at the College of Alençon and went into practice as a clerk for a solicitor in Alençon, in which position he was ruined by a lawsuit against a Dr. Clouet. Hébert fled first to
Rouen
Rouen (, ; or ) is a city on the River Seine, in northwestern France. It is in the prefecture of Regions of France, region of Normandy (administrative region), Normandy and the Departments of France, department of Seine-Maritime. Formerly one ...
and then to
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
in 1780 to evade a substantial one thousand
livre
Livre may refer to:
Currency
* French livre, one of a number of obsolete units of currency of France
* Livre tournois, one particular obsolete unit of currency of France
* Livre parisis, another particular obsolete unit of currency of France
* Fre ...
fine imposed for charges of slander. For a while, he passed through a difficult financial time and was supported by a hairdresser in Rue des Noyers. There he found work in a theater,
La République, where he wrote plays in his spare time; but these were never produced. Hébert was eventually fired for theft and entered the service of a doctor. It is said he lived through expediency and fraud.
In 1789, he began his writing with a pamphlet ''La Lanterne magique ou le Fléau des Aristocrates'' ("The Magic Lantern, or Scourge of Aristocrats"). He published a few booklets. In 1790, he attracted attention through a pamphlet he published, and became a prominent member of the political club of the
Cordeliers
The Society of the Friends of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen ( ), mainly known as Cordeliers Club ( ), was a Populism, populist List of political groups in the French Revolution, political club during the French Revolution from 1790 to 179 ...
in 1791.
Père Duchesne
Many writers and journalists were greatly influenced by the proclamation of martial law on 21 October 1789. It invoked various questions and patterns of Revolutionary thinking and inspired various forms of writing such as that based on the character of ''Père Duchesne'' (Father Duchesne). The law prompted multiple interpretations, all of which led to what became essential Revolutionary ideals.
From 1790 until his death in 1794, Hébert assumed the role of a voice for the working class of Paris through his highly successful and influential journal, ''
Le Père Duchesne
''Le Père Duchesne'' (; "Old Man Duchesne" or "Father Duchesne") was an extreme radical newspaper during the French Revolution, edited by Jacques Hébert, who published 385 issues from September 1790 until eleven days before his death by gu ...
''. In his journal, Hébert assumed the voice of a patriotic
''sans-culotte'' named Père Duchesne and would write first-person narratives in which Père Duchesne would often relay fictitious conversations that he had with the French monarchs or government officials. Hébert did not use himself as the prime example of the revolution. He used a mythical character of Père Duchesne to be able to relay his message in an anonymous fashion. Père Duchesne was already well known by the people of Paris and Hébert only wanted his message to be received directly and clearly by his followers. Père Duchesne was a strong, outspoken, highly emotional character. He felt great anger but also could experience great happiness. He was never afraid to show exactly how he was feeling. He would constantly use foul language and other harsh words to express himself, while also being witty and reflective. The stories resonated deeply in the poorer Parisian quarters. This could encourage violent behavior. Street hawkers would yell, ''Il est bougrement en colère aujourd’hui le père Duchesne!'' ("Father Duchesne is very angry today!"). Although Hébert did not create the image of the Père Duchesne, his use of the character helped to transform the symbolic image of Père Duchesne from that of a comical stove-merchant into a patriotic role model for the ''sans-culottes''. In part, Hébert's use of Père Duchesne as a revolutionary symbol can be seen by the character's appearance as a bristly old man who was portrayed as smoking a pipe and wearing a
Phrygian cap
The Phrygian cap ( ), also known as Thracian cap and liberty cap, is a soft Pointed hat, conical Hat, cap with the apex bent over, associated in Classical antiquity, antiquity with several peoples in Eastern Europe, Anatolia, and Asia. The Phry ...
.
Hébert and the Hébertists often expressed the view that many more aristocrats should be examined, denounced, and executed, as they argued that France could only be fully reborn through the elimination of its ancient and supposedly currently malignant nobility. In ''Le Père Duchesne'' number 65, where he writes of his reawakening in 1790, he defines aristocrats as "enemies of the constitution" who "conspire against the nation". Much of Hébert's celebrity came from his denunciations of King
Louis XVI
Louis XVI (Louis-Auguste; ; 23 August 1754 – 21 January 1793) was the last king of France before the fall of the monarchy during the French Revolution. The son of Louis, Dauphin of France (1729–1765), Louis, Dauphin of France (son and heir- ...
in his newspaper, as opposed to any office he may have held or his roles in any of the Parisian clubs with which he was involved.
Because Père Duchesne reflected both his audience's speech and dress, his readers listened to and acted on his message. The French linguist and historian
Ferdinand Brunot called Hébert "the
Homer
Homer (; , ; possibly born ) was an Ancient Greece, Ancient Greek poet who is credited as the author of the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'', two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Despite doubts about his autho ...
of filth" because of his ability to use common language to appeal to a general audience.
In addition, Père Duchesne's appearance played into the tensions of the revolution through the sharp contrast between his laborer's clothing and the elegant attire of the aristocracy.
[Landes, Joan. "More than Words: The Printing Press and the French Revolution". Review of Revolution in Print: The Press in France, by Robert Darton, Daniel Roche; Naissance du Journal Revolutionnaire, by Claude Labrosse, Pierre Retat; La Revolution du Journal, by Pierre Retat; Revolutionary News; The Press in France, by Jeremy D. Popkin. Eighteenth-Century Studies Vol. 25 No. 1 (1991): 85–91.] Hébert was not the only writer during the French Revolution to use the image of Père Duchesne nor was he the only author in the period to adopt foul language as a way of appealing to the working class. Another writer at the time, , also wrote a newspaper entitled ''Père Duchêne'' (although he spelt it differently than Hébert) from September 1790 until May 1792 in which he assumed the voice of a "moderate patriot" who wanted to conserve the relationship between the King and the nation. Lemaire's character also used a slew of profanities and would address France's military. However, ''Le Père Duchesne'' became far more popular because it cost less than
Jean-Paul Marat's paper,
''L' Ami du Peuple''. This made it easier to access for people like the sans-culottes. The popularity was also, in part, due to the
Paris Commune
The Paris Commune (, ) was a French revolutionary government that seized power in Paris on 18 March 1871 and controlled parts of the city until 28 May 1871. During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71, the French National Guard (France), Nation ...
deciding to buy his papers and distribute them to the French soldiers in training. For example, starting in 1792, the Paris Commune and the ministers of war
Jean-Nicolas Pache and, later,
Jean Baptiste Noël Bouchotte bought several thousand copies of ''Le Père Duchesne'' which were distributed free to the public and troops. This happened again in May and June 1793 when the Minister of War bought copies of newspapers in order to "enlighten and animate their patriotism". It is estimated that Hébert received 205,000
livres from this purchase.
The assassination of Jean-Paul Marat on July 13, 1793, led to ''Le Père Duchesne'' becoming the incontestable best-selling paper in Paris.

Hébert's political commentary between 1790 and 1793 focused on the lavish excesses of the monarchy. Initially, from 1790 and into 1792, ''Le Père Duchesne'' supported a
constitutional monarchy
Constitutional monarchy, also known as limited monarchy, parliamentary monarchy or democratic monarchy, is a form of monarchy in which the monarch exercises their authority in accordance with a constitution and is not alone in making decisions. ...
and was even favorable towards
King Louis XVI and the opinions of the
Marquis de Lafayette
Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier de La Fayette, Marquis de La Fayette (; 6 September 1757 – 20 May 1834), known in the United States as Lafayette (), was a French military officer and politician who volunteered to join the Conti ...
. His violent attacks of the period were aimed at
Jean-Sifrein Maury
Jean-Sifrein Maury (; 26 June 1746 – 10 May 1817) was a French cardinal, archbishop of Paris, and former bishop of Montefiascone.
Biography
The son of a cobbler, he was born at Valréas in the Comtat-Venaissin, the enclave within France th ...
, a great defender of papal authority and the main opponent of the
Civil Constitution of the Clergy
The Civil Constitution of the Clergy () was a law passed on 12 July 1790 during the French Revolution, that sought the Caesaropapism, complete control over the Catholic Church in France by the National Constituent Assembly (France), French gove ...
. Although the character of Père Duchesne supported a constitutional monarchy, he was always highly critical of
Marie Antoinette
Marie Antoinette (; ; Maria Antonia Josefa Johanna; 2 November 1755 – 16 October 1793) was the last List of French royal consorts, queen of France before the French Revolution and the establishment of the French First Republic. She was the ...
. Knowing that the queen was an easy target for ridicule after the
Diamond Necklace Affair, she became a consistent target in the paper as a scapegoat for many of France's political problems. By identifying Marie Antoinette's lavish excesses and alleged sexuality as the core of the monarchy's problems, Hébert's articles suggested that, if Marie Antoinette would change her ways and renounce aristocratic excesses, the monarchy could be saved and the queen could return to the good will of the people. Despite his view that the monarchy could be restored, Hébert was skeptical of the queen's willingness to comply and often characterized her as an evil enemy of the people by referring to the queen as "Madame Veto" and even addressing King Louis XVI as, "drunken and lazy; a
cuckolded pig". Initially, Hébert was trying to not only educate his readers about the queen, but also awaken her to how she was viewed by the French public. This gave Marie-Antoinette a pivotal role in Hébert's political rhetoric; as the Revolution unfolded, she appears in fourteen percent of his newspaper articles between January 1791 and March 1794. Many of the fictitious conversations that Père Duchesne has with her in the newspaper are attempts at either showcasing her supposed
nymphomania
Hypersexuality is a proposed medical condition said to cause unwanted or excessive sexual arousal, causing people to engage in or think about sexual activity to a point of distress or impairment., according to the website of '' Psychology T ...
or attempting to beg her to repent and renounce her wicked ways. With the king's failed
flight to Varennes
The Flight to Varennes (French: fuite de Varennes) during the night of 20–21 June 1791 was a significant event in the French Revolution in which the French royal family—comprising Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette, the Dauphin Louis Charles, ...
, Hébert's tone significantly hardened.
Revolutionary role
Following Louis's failed
flight to Varennes
The Flight to Varennes (French: fuite de Varennes) during the night of 20–21 June 1791 was a significant event in the French Revolution in which the French royal family—comprising Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette, the Dauphin Louis Charles, ...
in June 1791, Hébert began to attack both Louis and
Pope Pius VI
Pope Pius VI (; born Count Angelo Onofrio Melchiorre Natale Giovanni Antonio called Giovanni Angelo or Giannangelo Braschi, 25 December 171729 August 1799) was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 15 February 1775 to hi ...
. On 17 July, Hébert was at the
Champ de Mars
Champ, CHAMP or The Champ may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Fictional characters
* Champ (cartoon character), an animated dog introduced in 1960
* The Champ, played on radio and created by Jake Edwards (radio personality), Jake Edwards
* Champ ...
to sign a petition to demand the removal of King Louis XVI and was caught up in the subsequent
Champ de Mars massacre
The Champ de Mars massacre took place on 17 July 1791 in Paris at the Champ de Mars against a crowd of republican protesters amid the French Revolution. Two days before, the National Constituent Assembly issued a decree that King Louis XVI w ...
by troops under the
Marquis de Lafayette
Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier de La Fayette, Marquis de La Fayette (; 6 September 1757 – 20 May 1834), known in the United States as Lafayette (), was a French military officer and politician who volunteered to join the Conti ...
. This put him in the revolutionary mindset, and ''Le Père Duchesne'' adopted a populist style, deliberately opposed to the high-minded seriousness and appeal to reason expressed by other revolutionaries, to better appeal to the Parisian sans-culottes. His journalistic voice expressed separation from and violent opposition to cultured elites in favor of a popular political allegiance to radical patriotic solutions to controlling the economy and winning the war. ''Le Père Duchesne'' began to attack prominent political figures like Lafayette, head of the
National Guard
National guard is the name used by a wide variety of current and historical uniformed organizations in different countries. The original National Guard was formed during the French Revolution around a cadre of defectors from the French Guards.
...
; the deceased
Comte de Mirabeau, a prominent orator and statesman; and
Jean Sylvain Bailly
Jean Sylvain Bailly (; 15 September 1736 – 12 November 1793) was a French astronomer, mathematician, freemason, and political leader of the early part of the French Revolution. He presided over the Tennis Court Oath, served as the mayor of ...
, mayor of Paris. In a 1793 speech to the public, Hébert stated his beliefs regarding Lafayette. He noted that there were two Père Duchesnes, who opposed each other deeply. The Père Duchesne that he said he identified with was the "honest and loyal Père Duchesne who has pursued traitors", while the Père Duchesne he had nothing to do with "praised Lafayette to the heavens".
As a member of
Cordeliers
The Society of the Friends of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen ( ), mainly known as Cordeliers Club ( ), was a Populism, populist List of political groups in the French Revolution, political club during the French Revolution from 1790 to 179 ...
club, he had a seat in the revolutionary
Paris Commune
The Paris Commune (, ) was a French revolutionary government that seized power in Paris on 18 March 1871 and controlled parts of the city until 28 May 1871. During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71, the French National Guard (France), Nation ...
, and during the
Insurrection of 10 August 1792 he was sent to the Bonne-Nouvelle
section of Paris. As a public journalist, he supported the
September Massacres the next month. He agreed with most of the ideals of the radical
Montagnard faction, even though he was not a member of it. On 22 December 1792, he was appointed the second substitute of the ''procureur'' of the commune, and through to August 1793 supported the attacks against the
Girondin faction.
In April–May 1793 he, along with
Marat and others, violently attacked the Girondins. On 20 May 1793, the moderate majority of the
National Convention
The National Convention () was the constituent assembly of the Kingdom of France for one day and the French First Republic for its first three years during the French Revolution, following the two-year National Constituent Assembly and the ...
formed the
Special Commission of Twelve, a Girondin commission which was designed to investigate and prosecute conspirators. At the urging of the Twelve, on 24 May 1793, he was arrested. However, Hébert had been warned in time, and, with the support of the ''
sans-culottes
The (; ) were the working class, common people of the social class in France, lower classes in late 18th-century history of France, France, a great many of whom became radical and militant partisans of the French Revolution in response to their ...
'', the National Convention was forced to order his release three days later. Just four days after that, his anti-Girondin rhetoric would help lead to their ousting in the
Insurrection of 31 May 2 June. On 28 August 1793, he proposed to the Jacobins to write an address taking up the demands of the
Enragés, and to have it taken to the Convention by the Jacobins, the 48 sections, and the popular societies, a suggestion greatly applauded by
Billaud-Varenne and others, ignoring
Maximilien Robespierre
Maximilien François Marie Isidore de Robespierre (; ; 6 May 1758 – 28 July 1794) was a French lawyer and statesman, widely recognised as one of the most influential and controversial figures of the French Revolution. Robespierre ferv ...
's warning against a riot "which would fill the aristocrats with joy".
During all this, Hébert met his wife
Marie Goupil (born 1756), a 37-year-old former nun who had left convent life at the Sisters of Providence convent at
Rue Saint-Honoré. Marie's passport from this time shows regular use. They married on 7 February 1792, and had a daughter, Virginie-Scipion Hébert (7 February 1793 – 13 July 1830). During this time, Hébert had a luxurious, bourgeois life. He entertained
Jean-Nicolas Pache, the mayor of Paris and Minister of War, for weeks, as well as other influential men, and liked to dress elegantly and surround himself with beautiful objects such as pretty tapestries—an attitude that can be contrasted to that of Paris Commune president
Pierre Gaspard Chaumette. Where he got the financial resources to support his lifestyle is unclear; however, there are Jean-Nicolas Pache's commissions to print thousands of issues of ''Le Père Duchesne'' and his relationship to Delaunay d'Angers, mistress and wife of Andres Maria de Guzman. In February 1793, he voted with fellow bourgeois
Hébertists against a Maximum Price Act, a
price ceiling
A price ceiling is a government- or group-imposed price control, or limit, on how high a price is charged for a product, commodity, or service. Governments use price ceilings to protect consumers from conditions that could make commodities proh ...
on grain, on the grounds that it would cause hoarding and stir resentment.
Dechristianization
Dechristianization was a movement that took hold during the French Revolution. Advocates believed that to pursue a secular society, they had to reject the superstitions of the
Old Regime and, as an extension,
Catholicism
The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...
, altogether. The trend toward secularization had already begun to take hold throughout France during the eighteenth century, but between September 1793 and August 1794, mostly during the
Reign of Terror
The Reign of Terror (French: ''La Terreur'', literally "The Terror") was a period of the French Revolution when, following the creation of the French First Republic, First Republic, a series of massacres and Capital punishment in France, nu ...
, French politicians began discussing and embracing notions of "radical dechristianization". While
Robespierre
Maximilien François Marie Isidore de Robespierre (; ; 6 May 1758 – 28 July 1794) was a French lawyer and statesman, widely recognised as one of the most influential and controversial figures of the French Revolution. Robespierre fer ...
advocated for the right to religion and believed that aggressively pursuing dechristianization would spur widespread
revolts throughout rural France, Hébert and his followers, the
Hébertists, wanted to spontaneously and violently overhaul religion.
The writer and philosopher
Voltaire
François-Marie Arouet (; 21 November 169430 May 1778), known by his ''Pen name, nom de plume'' Voltaire (, ; ), was a French Age of Enlightenment, Enlightenment writer, philosopher (''philosophe''), satirist, and historian. Famous for his wit ...
was an inspiration to Hébert on this front. Like Voltaire, Hébert believed that the toleration of different religious beliefs was necessary for humanity to pass from an age of superstitions, and that traditional religion was an obstacle to this goal. Eventually, Hébert would argue that Jesus was not a demigod, but instead a good ''
sans-culotte
The (; ) were the common people of the lower classes in late 18th-century France, a great many of whom became radical and militant partisans of the French Revolution in response to their poor quality of life under the . The word , which is o ...
''. Voltaire had also provided him with the basic tenets of a civic religion that would be able to replace traditional religion, which led to Hébert to being heavily involved in the movement. The program of dechristianization waged against Catholicism, and eventually against all forms of Christianity, included the deportation of clergy and the condemnation of many of them to death, the closing of churches, the institution of revolutionary and civic cults, the large scale destruction of religious monuments, the outlawing of public and private worship and religious education, forced marriages of the clergy, and forced abjurement of their
priesthood.
On 21 October 1793, a law was passed which made all suspected priests and all persons who harbored them liable to death on sight.
On 10 November 1793, dechristianization reached what many historians consider the climax of the movement when the Hébertists moved the first Festival of Reason (''Fête de la Raison''), a civic festival celebrating the
Goddess of Reason, from the Circus of the
Palais Royale to the Cathedral of
Notre Dame and reclaimed the cathedral as a "Temple of Reason".
On 7 June, Robespierre, who had previously condemned the
Cult of Reason
The Cult of Reason () was France's first established State religion, state-sponsored secular religion, atheistic religion, intended as a replacement for Catholicism, Roman Catholicism during the French Revolution. After holding sway for barely ...
, advocated a new state religion and recommended that the Convention acknowledge the existence of a singular
God
In monotheistic belief systems, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator, and principal object of faith. In polytheistic belief systems, a god is "a spirit or being believed to have created, or for controlling some part of the un ...
. On the next day, the worship of the deistic
Supreme Being was inaugurated as an official aspect of the Revolution. Compared with Hébert's somewhat popular festivals, this austere new religion of Virtue was received with signs of hostility by the Parisian public.
Clash with Robespierre, arrest, conviction, and execution
After successfully attacking the
Girondins
The Girondins (, ), also called Girondists, were a political group during the French Revolution. From 1791 to 1793, the Girondins were active in the Legislative Assembly and the National Convention. Together with the Montagnards, they initiall ...
, Hébert in the fall of 1793 continued to attack those whom he viewed as too moderate, including
Georges Danton
Georges Jacques Danton (; ; 26 October 1759 – 5 April 1794) was a leading figure of the French Revolution. A modest and unknown lawyer on the eve of the Revolution, Danton became a famous orator of the Cordeliers Club and was raised to gove ...
,
Pierre Philippeaux, and
Maximilien Robespierre
Maximilien François Marie Isidore de Robespierre (; ; 6 May 1758 – 28 July 1794) was a French lawyer and statesman, widely recognised as one of the most influential and controversial figures of the French Revolution. Robespierre ferv ...
, among others. When Hébert accused
Marie Antoinette
Marie Antoinette (; ; Maria Antonia Josefa Johanna; 2 November 1755 – 16 October 1793) was the last List of French royal consorts, queen of France before the French Revolution and the establishment of the French First Republic. She was the ...
during her trial of incest with her son, Robespierre called him a fool (''imbécile'') for his outrageous and unsubstantiated innuendos and lies.
The government was exasperated and, with support from the Jacobins, finally decided to strike against the
Hébertists on the night of 13 March 1794, despite the reluctance of
Barère de Vieuzac,
Collot d'Herbois, and
Billaud-Varenne. The order was to arrest the leaders of the Hébertists; these included individuals in the War Ministry and others.
In the
Revolutionary Tribunal
The Revolutionary Tribunal (; unofficially Popular Tribunal) was a court instituted by the National Convention during the French Revolution for the trial of political offenders. In October 1793, it became one of the most powerful engines of ...
, Hébert was treated very differently from Danton, more like a thief than a conspirator; his earlier frauds were brought to light and criticized. He was sentenced to death with his co-defendants on the third day of deliberations. Their execution by
guillotine
A guillotine ( ) is an apparatus designed for effectively carrying out executions by Decapitation, beheading. The device consists of a tall, upright frame with a weighted and angled blade suspended at the top. The condemned person is secur ...
took place on 24 March 1794. Hébert fainted several times on the way to the guillotine and screamed hysterically when he was placed under the blade. Hébert's executioners reportedly amused the crowd by adjusting the guillotine so that its blade stopped inches above his neck, and it was only after the fourth time the lever (''déclic'') was pulled that he was actually beheaded. His corpse was disposed of in the
Madeleine Cemetery.
His widow was executed twenty days later on 13 April 1794, and her corpse was disposed of in the
Errancis Cemetery.
The importance of Hébert's execution was known by everyone involved in the revolution, including the Jacobins.
Louis Antoine de Saint-Just
Louis Antoine Léon de Saint-Just (; 25 August 176710 Thermidor, Year II 8 July 1794, sometimes nicknamed the Archangel of Terror, was a French revolutionary, political philosopher, member and president of the National Convention, French ...
, a prominent Jacobin leader, noted that following his execution, "the revolution is frozen", demonstrating how central Hébert and his followers, a large portion of ''sans-culottes'', were to the longevity and success of the revolution.
Influence
It is difficult to ascertain the extent to which Hébert's publication ''Le Père Duchesne'' impacted the outcomes of political events between 1790 and 1794. Historians such as Jean-Paul Bertaud, Jeremy D. Popkin, and William J. Murray each investigated French Revolutionary press history and determined that while the newspapers and magazines that one read during the revolution may have influenced political leanings, the periodicals did not necessarily create those political leanings. One's class, for example, could be a significant determinant in directing and influencing one's political decisions. Therefore, Hébert's writings certainly influenced his audience to an often dramatic extent, but the ''sans-culottes'' were but one element in a complex political mix, meaning that it is difficult to determine in what ways his writing changed the political outcomes of the French Revolution.
That being said, his wide readership and voice throughout the Revolution means that he was a significant public figure, and ''Le Père Duchesne''s ability to influence the general population of France was indeed notable.
Gallery
Image:Le_Pere_Duchesne.jpg, Illustration from ''Le Père Duchesne'' broadsides
Image:LetterHebertPalloy.jpg, Letter by Jacques Hébert to citizen Pierre-François Palloy
References
* The 1911 ''Encyclopædia Britannica'', in turn, gives the following references:
**Louis Duval, "Hébert chez lui", in ''La Révolution Française, revue d'histoire moderne et contemporaine'', t. xii. and t. xiii.
**D. Mater, J. R. Hibert, ''L'auteur du Père Duchesne avant la journée du 10 août 1792'' (Bourges, Comm. Hist. du Cher, 1888).
**
François Victor Alphonse Aulard, ''Le Culte de la raison et de l'être suprême'' (Paris, 1892).
External links
Jacques Hébert Internet Archiveon
Marxists.org
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hebert, Jacques-Rene
1757 births
1794 deaths
Writers from Alençon
Hébertists
Jacobins
Far-left politics in France
French newspaper founders
Newspaper editors of the French Revolution
French atheism activists
French people executed by guillotine during the French Revolution
French male essayists
French radicals
Left-wing populists
18th-century French essayists
18th-century French male writers
French critics of Christianity
18th-century French journalists