Jacobin more prominent in leading France, the period when war was declared on Austria and Prussia, the monarchy was overthrown and the Republic created. In May 1793, the leaders of the Mountain faction led by Maximilien Robespierre succeeded in sidelining the Girondin faction and controlled the government until July 1794. Their time in government was characterized by high levels of political violence and for this reason the period of the Jacobin/Mountain government is also commonly referred to as the Reign of Terror. In October 1793, 21 prominent Girondins were guillotined. The Mountain-dominated government executed 17,000 opponents nationwide, purportedly to suppress the
The Lesser Evil: Political Ethics in an Age of Terror The Lesser Evil: Political Ethics in an Age of Terror The Lesser Evil: Political Ethics in an Age of Terror is a lecture and book written by Michael Ignatieff as part of the Gifford Lectures. In it, Ignatieff considers the question of how, in a liberal democracy, it is possible to balance the legitimate rights of innocent citizens against the state's need to combat terrorism. This book was written in 2003 to address questions of human rights and humanitarian policy which arose as a result of the issues surrounding the War on Terror, particularly with regard to the US Foreign