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Jean-Paul Marat

Prophet of Terror
By Keith Michael Baker
Series: The Life of Ideas
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Brief Description
A landmark biography of one of the most notorious and controversial protagonists of the French Revolution—Jean-Paul Marat. Who better to pen an authoritative biography of Jean-Paul Marat (1743–93) than the preeminent historian of France, Keith Michael Baker? Decades in the making, this monumental work takes readers... Read More
Format: Hardback
$9499
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Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

A landmark biography of one of the most notorious and controversial protagonists of the French Revolution—Jean-Paul Marat.

Who better to pen an authoritative biography of Jean-Paul Marat (1743–93) than the preeminent historian of France, Keith Michael Baker? Decades in the making, this monumental work takes readers on a journey through the intriguing, sometimes shocking life of this writer and thinker.

Starting with his Swiss family and upbringing, Baker then sheds light on Marat's early years in England, his career as an aspiring scientist in Paris, his gradual transformation from impassioned pamphleteer to revolutionary newspaperman, and, finally, his murder and martyrdom. Throughout, Baker offers readers the unique opportunity to reconsider the outbreak and development of the French Revolution through Marat's eyes and in his own words.

To help make sense of Marat's trajectory, he shows how Marat's violent and incendiary public calls to render unseen forces visible, to inject immediacy into an increasingly abstract modern world, would transform classical republicanism into the language of the Terror.

Far beyond a standard rendering of Marat's life and its milestones, Jean-Paul Marat offers readers an opportunity to see the French Revolution as never before, through the perspective of one of its major figures. Baker's book reveals how someone like Marat could go from translating Newton and engaging Franklin to calling for an ever-growing number of heads to roll—a transformation as chillingly relevant as ever.

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Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9780226820927

Publisher: The University of Chicago Press

Format: Hardback

Date Published: 14 November 2025

Country: United States

Imprint: University of Chicago Press

Illustration: 21 halftones

Audience: Professional and scholarly

DIMENSIONS

Width: 152.0mm

Height: 229.0mm

Weight: 454g

Pages: 952

Collections

Biography & Memoir European History History & Archaeology History & Military Keith Michael Baker Non-Fiction Political Biographies Series: The Life of Ideas

About the Author

Keith Michael Baker is the J. E. Wallace Sterling Professor in the Humanities, professor of history, and professor (by courtesy) of French and Italian, emeritus, at Stanford University. He is the author or editor of several books on the Enlightenment and the French Revolution. 

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