Tom Holland

speaker

53,948 appearances 205 recordings 9 series first heard Sep 2024 last heard 2d ago

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

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Recordings per month over the last 12 months — 96 in all, peaking in Jun 2026 with 11.

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

And this is, I think, what explains why when the French Revolution erupts in 1789, he is desperate to be a part of it. matched

So Ruth Sker, who wrote another biography of Robespierre, Fatal Purity, which is wonderfully well written, matched

His recognition of this opportunity and the ferocity of his determination to see it was amazing. matched

He is determined to go to Versailles to be part of this great assembly of the various estates that Louis XVI has summoned. matched

And so he gets elected. matched

He goes to Versailles as an elected representative of the people of his hometown. matched

But even though he's an elected representative, he is, of course, relative to lots of other people who are assembling in Versailles, basically a nobody. matched

I mean, he's very earnest. matched

He's very stiff. matched

He seems to be without much charisma at all. matched

And yet over the course of the four years that follow the eruption of the revolution, he emerges to become one of the most celebrated figures in revolutionary France, admired and hated in equal measure. matched

And the measure of his rise to power is something that you mentioned in your previous episode, Dominic, that on the 27th of July, 1793, matched

France is seemingly on the verge of disintegration. matched

Robespierre is elected to this proto-dictatorial body, the Committee of Public Safety. matched

This means that he is now one of 10 men, soon to be 12, who have been appointed to protect the nation from invasion, from counter-revolution, from economic collapse. matched

And in effect, try and save the revolution from imploding matched

him? matched

Well, I think there are two in particular, and both of these have been on public display from his earliest days as a lawyer back in Arras. matched

And the first of these is that he displays matched

a remarkable consistency of principle. matched

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