Timothy Tackett has observed that the impact of the October Days on the structure and dynamics of politics within the National Constituent Assembly was “considerably less than is sometimes suggested by historians.” The Assembly, in an attempt to stabilize the political situation, prudently limited the number of passports issued to nervous deputies wishing to leave the country, and over the ensuing weeks legislative attendance recovered to the levels of early August. It is always useful to stress underlying continuities of any kind holding for these early months of the Revolution, as historians are so frequently inclined to do just the opposite. Indeed, when they seek to characterize developments in 1789, they dwell with predictable relish on the dramatic emergence in France of national representative politics, or proclaim a major “breakthrough” of discourses of popular sovereignty and conclude that nothing for the French could ever be the same again.

There is, of course, something to be said for such a conclusion. Yet there may be grounds for arguing, with respect to 1789 and indeed with regard to the entire phase of revolution dominated by the Constituent Assembly, that continuities mattered as much as discontinuities. After summarizing events in this period, Chapter 3 will reassess the European high politics of 1789–91 and the initial harbingers of a French resurgence in the face of old and new international challenges.