If you check out The Siècle's YouTube page, you might notice a bit of a visual makeover in progress...
25.02.2026 04:29
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If you check out The Siècle's YouTube page, you might notice a bit of a visual makeover in progress...
I followed you — but I think that's a journal article written by the same author about the same figure, distinct from his full-length book.
I am trying to find a digital copy of Laurence Constant-Ancet's "Félix Lepeletier de Saint-Fargeau : un itinéraire, de la Révolution à la monarchie de Juillet" with some urgency. If you can help feel free to DM!
A theatre marquee for a showing of Les Misérables.
Time for a night of light musical theatre! This should have a happy ending, right?
That's not what an AI would say, it's just common sense.
There are a range of opinions about AI; this thread isn't the place to have that debate. I find some of the AI tools out there intriguing. But I love writing, and the act of writing is how I build & hone my historical interpretations. No shortcuts to that.
In case anyone wonders: I don't use AI tools to write The Siècle, or to record it. (The em-dashes are all me.) I've occasionally used AI for research, but only to help find sources. I never use AI summaries as source material. More:
"Bonjour, fellow Siècle listeners."
Screenshot of an email from "Jessica Brody" with the title "A Blog Post Idea I’d Love Your Thoughts On" and the following text: Hello there, Ever wondered what it really takes to open a cat café? I’d love to write an article for your readers offering strategies and tips for launching this purr-fect venture, from planning and permits to creating a cozy, cat-friendly experience. If this sounds like a fit for your site, I’d be happy to send the article your way for review and consideration. Of course, I can adjust the tone or focus to match your editorial style. I look forward to hearing from you. Thank you very much, Jessica Brody OurBestFriends.pet
What a great opportunity for content I can put on thesiecle.com.
because one (1) person asked for it here is a thread comparing the various governments of France from 1789 to the present as Arrested Development characters.
I'm one of the guest voices here recording a story from 15th Century Burgundy, about a soldier who insisted that the straps for attaching armor on a prisoner's shirt constituted "weapons," and was therefore forced by an angry noble to fight a duel with only buckle-straps for weapons.
ICYMI: new episode!
Depiction of a riot in the streets of Paris during the December 1830 treason trial of the former ministers of King Charles X. Auguste Joliet, “Procès des ministres (1830),” in Victor Duruy, Histoire populaire contemporaine de la France, vol. 1 (Paris: Ch. Lahure, 1864). Public domain via Bibliothèque Nationale de France.
In 1830, France's king and his ministers suspended the constitution. But the people of Paris resisted and overthrew the regime.
Now crowds are chanting "Death to the ministers." The ex-ministers are on trial — but so is France's new regime.
NEW EPISODE: thesiecle.com/episode49/
Someone I know once jokingly described the Marquis de Lafayette as "a golden retriever in human form" and he doesn't exactly do a great job disproving the allegations here.
Depiction of a riot in the streets of Paris during the December 1830 treason trial of the former ministers of King Charles X. Auguste Joliet, “Procès des ministres (1830),” in Victor Duruy, Histoire populaire contemporaine de la France, vol. 1 (Paris: Ch. Lahure, 1864). Public domain via Bibliothèque Nationale de France.
NEW EPISODE: The July Revolution is done, but Paris isn't sure if it's done with revolution. Protests and riots, treason trials and lynch mobs, suspicious deaths and epic betrayals — it's all here in Episode 49: The Trial.
thesiecle.com/episode49/
Hello! Are we listening to the latest gastro-adventure?
podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/t...
#πodcast #food #greekfood #greekcheese #greekrecipes
Some say later!
Merry Sièclemas!
A little oiseau just told me to listen for something new tomorrow... 😉
Screenshot of an email from an Italian pergola manufacturer.
I get a lot of spam on my podcast email, usually people offering to SEO my YouTube videos or whatever.
But the ~weirdest~ spam is this Italian pergola manufacturer, whose mailing list I have been unable to get off of for YEARS.
A screenshot with a portrait of a French man in 1820s Greek clothing, with the text: Athens had fallen despite increasing support for the Greeks from outsiders, including a flashy French colonel named Charles Fabvier. And I hope you’ll forgive one last tangent before we reach the end here, because Fabvier has actually been all over our narrative in the background. Back in Episode 11, I talked about an alleged revolutionary conspiracy in the city of Lyons in 1817, and how liberal elements in the French government later claimed that the entire affair had been a false flag operation by Ultra officials. The author of that liberal report was Col. Fabvier, in his role as a senior military aide. Fabvier was involved in the definitely real liberal coup attempt of 1820 that I talked about in Episode 15. In the aftermath of that failed coup, as I mentioned last time, the Doctrinaire Duc de Broglie acted to protect senior liberal politicians by dropping charges against the one conspirator who was capable of implicating them. That “one conspirator”? No points if you guessed it was Charles Fabvier. You also don’t get any prizes for guessing that Fabvier was heavily involved in France’s Carbonari uprisings. In Episode 18, I mentioned how the French army invading Spain in 1823 was met by a group of exiled French soldiers, waving the tricolor flag and encouraging their countrymen to mutiny. That contingent of exiled French soldiers was commanded by… well, I don’t think you need me to spell it out.89
My favorite example of this *so far* was Charles Fabvier in Episode 30 (and guess who makes a cameo again in the upcoming Episode 49??): thesiecle.com/episode30/
There are few types of paragraphs I enjoy writing more than "Here's a new person, but actually, he's been in the background for half a dozen episodes and I'm only properly introducing him now."
Attested as early as 1825, so not impossible!
Redacted screenshot of text reading, "join me for Episode 50: BLANK and BLANK."
🤫
34/ This thread is adapted most directly from Episode 43 of The Siècle, "The Politicians," but my entire series on the July Revolution begins with Episode 39 (and you'll get a lot of extra backstory by starting with Episode 1, as I recommend).
33/ I'll be exploring the emerging July Monarchy in coming episodes of The Siècle — one coming *very soon*. But the politics of the July Revolution are fascinating, in how opposition leaders almost dithered away their moment, but developed a backbone before events had completely passed them by.
32/ But I don't think we should read backwards into July 1830 the events of the next subsequent months and years, which were not predetermined. The accession of Louis-Philippe was a moment of potentiality, not finality; the key decisions for the fate of the July Monarchy remained in the future.
31/ The popular image of the July Revolution is dominated by what came next — the quick retreat of the July Monarchy into conservatism and "resistance," culminating eventually in its own overthrow in 1848 after refusals to expand the franchise.
30/ What always strikes me about the July Revolution is how *fast* it all was. This wasn't like the American Revolution, where delegates took more than a year after Lexington and Concord to finally build majority support for declaring independence. The July Revolution was over in less than a week.
29/ This brief moment of decisive unity didn't last long. In the coming months the new regime — the July Monarchy — would split into opposing camps, the "Party of Movement" who wanted to continue reforms & the "Party of Resistance" who wanted to freeze things in a new order. But that's another tale.