British and American Radicals in Revolutionary Paris

The French Revolution attracted numerous foreign radicals to Paris.  Many of these individuals from around the Atlantic and European world not only were deeply invested in spreading revolution or reform to their homelands, but also became entangled with French revolutionary politics. This paper will focus on the Anglo-Saxon community in Paris, both American and British, and analyze its network of relationships in order to probe how social, political, and international forces shaped this community, its identity, and its activism.  Crucial relationships include connections among these radicals, connections to back home, and connections to French revolutionary leaders.  I am particularly interested in two sets of questions.  First, what was the mentality and identity of these cosmopolitan revolutionary adventurers?  How is it forged in Paris, in dialogue with current events in France and with the radicals’ own national pasts and revolutionary aspirations?  Second, I will analyze how patterns of sociability and gender relations informed this community and its politics.  Rather than focusing on the ideology and specific political actions of leading figures, such as Thomas Paine, I will focus on less well known figures and argue for the centrality and complexity of these networks of personal relationships in creating international activism and cosmopolitan revolutionary identity and politics.