The Terror: Killing God (Part 5)
The Rest Is History

The Terror: Killing God (Part 5)

B2Upper-intermediateOctober 4, 20261 hr 16 min
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Why did Robespierre hold a vast, eccentric festival in 1794 when The Reign of Terror was at its most frenzied? What does it reveal about his psychology and belief in the divine? And, did he really believe that the French Revolution could succeed in supplanting the Christian God? Join Tom and Dominic as they discuss the extraordinary spectacle of the Festival of the Supreme Being, its sinister reception, and the transformation of France. Join The Rest Is History Club: Unlock the full experience of the show – with exclusive bonus episodes, ad-fr...

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world. Let us be ardent and tenacious in our anger towards the leagues of tyranny, imperturbable in

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B2 · Upper-intermediate

Comfortable if you already follow TV news

A1 25%A2 34%B1 23%B2 13%C1 6%
  • 81% of the words are B1 or easier.
  • 162 words a minute: natural, fairly fast speech.
  • 490 harder words (B2 and up) in the whole episode.

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0:00

Let us be grave and discreet in all our deliberations, as men who determine the interests of the world. Let us be ardent and tenacious in our anger towards the leagues of tyranny, imperturbable in danger, patient in labour, terrible in adversity, modest and vigilant in success. Let us be generous towards the good, compassionate towards the unfortunate,

0:37

inexorable toward the wicked, just towards all. Let us not count on an unalloyed prosperity, nor on triumph without obstacles, nor on anything that depends on the fortune or perversity of others, we should rely solely on our own constancy and our own virtue alone. But infallible guarantors of our independence, let us crush the unholy league of kings even

1:09

more by our greatness of character than by the force of our arms. So that was a speech given by Maximilian Robespierre on the 8th of June 1794 in the gardens of the Tuileries in the centre of Paris. Now some people might find that stirring.

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