Tom Holland

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53,930 appearances 202 recordings 9 series first heard Sep 2024 last heard yesterday

Tom Holland’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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The Rest Is History · 708. The Terror: The Reign of Robespierre (Part 2) · 23 Sep 2026 podcast

It's originally coined in French in 1794 after the terror has formally been brought to an end to describe a class of person who had never before needed to be described. matched

This is the birth of our notion of terrorism as a positive, because terrorists obviously think that they are doing often God's work or the work of the people or matched

capital punishment. matched

We did an episode on the introduction of the guillotine and how Robespierre stood up right the way through all the meetings that were structuring the revolution from 1789 onwards, opposing the death penalty. matched

He had a profound personal horror of violence. matched

For instance, he had opposed the war against Austria and Prussia that the Girondins had pushed. matched

He was very against it, even though matched

Ultimately, he is part of the institution that is responsible for sending people to the guillotine. matched

He never goes and watches executions himself. matched

He hasn't got the stomach for it. matched

And even during the terror itself, he does disapprove of a lot of the more indiscriminate atrocities that are being perpetrated out in the provinces. matched

We talked yesterday about Marat, how the stress of being in the eye of the political storm brought him out in kind of boils and all kinds of skin complaints. matched

I think Robespierre likewise finds matched

The process of administering the terror, very stressful, which I'm sure won't be much consolation to those who are his victims. matched

But it is notable that he seems to have retired to his bed in a state of kind of nervous collapse throughout the months of the terror. matched

So he's, as you say, he's absolutely not Stalin. matched

He's not cavalier about this. matched

He feels the burden of it, I think, very personally. matched

And also his political opinions. matched

I mean, they are very liberal Democrat. matched

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