THINKING ABOUT THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. OLD DEBATES AND NEW PROPOSALS

After two centuries of debate, the French Revolution remains one of the most passionately contested and intellectually creative areas of historical enquiry. The history of the French Revolution is still very much alive and projects its complex path up till now as history of sociopolitical conflicts and challenges to democracy. A half way between structures, ideas and mentalities, historiography and recent investigations continue at a good pace in the middle of an intense debate. This article revises recent approaches in historiography and some of the main topics and current trends in revolutionary research. After revisionist hegemony of the bicentennial, on observe - specially, in France-a revival of the classical paradigm. Thematic broadening, the complexity of analysis and a global perspective show that far from being over, historiographycal debate suggests a necessity to interpret the interactive systems which produced the mechanisms of the Revolution.