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13 - The 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen

A Civil Creed of the French Republic?

from Part II - Postrevolutionary Rights

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2025

By
Valentine Zuber
Edited by
Dan Edelstein  and
Jennifer Pitts
Dan Edelstein
Affiliation:
Stanford University, California
Jennifer Pitts
Affiliation:
University of Chicago
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Summary

This chapter explores the place and transformation of the 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (DDHC) in the subsequent history of France. It argues that the DDHC underwent a process of sacralization, through which it became the foundation of French civil religion. Already in the early twentieth century, the historian Albert Mathiez remarked on this process, drawing on Émile Durkheim’s sociological analysis. This chapter extends Mathiez’s analysis.

Keywords

civil religionsacralizationÉmile DurkheimAlbert Mathiezdeclaration
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge History of Rights , pp. 323 - 340
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2024

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References

Further Reading

Aulard, A., Le Culte de la raison et le culte de l’Être suprême: 1793–1794: Essai historique (Paris, Félix Alcan, 1892).Google Scholar
Bellah, R. N., “Civil Religion in America,” Daedalus 96/1 (1967), 1–18.Google Scholar
Beurdeley, P., Les Catéchismes révolutionnaires, étude historique et pédagogique sur la morale civique (Paris, Fischbacher, 1893).Google Scholar
Buttier, J.-C., “De l’éducation civique à la formation politique: Les catéchismes politiques dans la France du long XIXe siècle,” La Révolution française, les catéchismes républicains (2009), http://lrf.revues.org/115 (accessed September 13, 2022).Google Scholar
Durkheim, É., “De la définition des phénomènes religieux,” Année sociologique 2 (1898), 7–13.Google Scholar
Durkheim, É., “Les Principes de 1789 et la sociologie,” Revue internationale de l’enseignement 19 (1890), 450–6.Google Scholar
Fauré, C., Ce que déclarer des droits veut dire (Paris, Les Belles Lettres, coll. Histoires, 2011).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fauré, C., Les Déclarations des droits de l’homme de 1789 (Paris, Payot, 1988).Google Scholar
Guillaume, J., La Déclaration des droits de l’homme et du citoyen, 1789 (Paris, Hachette, 1900).Google Scholar
Ihl, O., “Religion civile: La carrière comparée d’un concept,” Revue internationale de politique comparée 7/3 (2000), 595–627.Google Scholar
Kaplan, S. L., Farewell, Revolution: The Historians’ Feud, France, 1789/1989 (Ithaca, NY, Cornell University Press, 2018).Google Scholar
Mathiez, A., Les Origines des cultes révolutionnaires (1789–1792) (Paris, Société nouvelle de librairie et d’édition, 1904).Google Scholar
Mollier, J.-Y. (ed.), Manuels scolaires et Révolution française, actes du colloque de Créteil du 7 juin 1989 (Paris, Messidor, 1990).Google Scholar
Ozouf, M., La Fête révolutionnaire, 1789–1799 (Paris, Gallimard, 1976).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wahnich, S., La Révolution française, un événement de la raison sensible, 1787–1799 (Paris, Hachette supérieur, 2012).Google Scholar
Zuber, V., Le Culte des droits de l’homme (Paris, Gallimard, 2014).Google Scholar

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