Confronting Capitalism with Vivek Chibber
Jul 8, 2026 · 50 min · 11 segments
On July 14, 1789, the storming of the Bastille in Paris marked the transition of the French Revolution from an elite negotiation into a truly mass event. But what kicked off this insurgency and what…
Vivek ChibberHost
Melissa NaschekHost
Bastille Day is the commemoration of the storming of the Bastille, and that's something that happened in Paris in, obviously, July 1789, when the Parisian masses gathered, and they attacked what was at that time a very well-known prison and fortress, the Bastille.
The question is, why did they attack it? They attacked it because actually what they were doing was rising up to defend a revolutionary process that was unfolding in Versailles-
They were defending it, and in the course of defending it, they stormed the Bastille.
One is, what was happening in Versailles at the time, and why did the Parisian masses feel that they had to defend it?
Versailles, at that moment, was the place where you had the meeting, what's called the Estates General.
[laughs] Because how something is spelled in French has no connection to how it's actually pronounced.
Bastille Day is the commemoration of the storming of the Bastille, and that's something that happened in Paris in, obviously, July 1789, when the Parisian masses gathered, and they attacked what was at that time a very well-known prison and fortress, the Bastille.
The question is, why did they attack it? They attacked it because actually what they were doing was rising up to defend a revolutionary process that was unfolding in Versailles-
They were defending it, and in the course of defending it, they stormed the Bastille.
One is, what was happening in Versailles at the time, and why did the Parisian masses feel that they had to defend it?
Versailles, at that moment, was the place where you had the meeting, what's called the Estates General.
[laughs] Because how something is spelled in French has no connection to how it's actually pronounced.
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