'Insects of the Hour': Dr Price's 'Revolutions'

By Stuart Andrews | Published in History Today Volume: 41 Issue: 5 1991

Stuart Andrews considers the life and radical milieu of the dissenting preacher whose support first for the American and then the French Revolutions brought him public controversy, and in the case of the latter, triggered Edmund Burke's classic denunciation of 1789.

Dr Richard Price, the Unitarian minister who died 200 years ago, is best remembered for provoking Edmund Burke into penning his famous indictment of the French Revolution. The full title of Burke's work, published in 1690, was Reflections on the Revolution in France, and on the Proceedings in certain Societies in London relative to that Event. Burke's particular target was the London Revolution Society, whose congratulatory address to the French National Assembly had been warmly acknowledged.

This article is available to History Today online subscribers only. If you are a subscriber, please log in.