Translating Revolutionary Time: French Republican Almanacs in the United States

Almanacs, because of their utility and commonality, have often been used as political tools. When French revolutionaries decided that to republicanize France they had to republicanize their calendar, because they believed almanacs could shape people’s daily lives, their relationship to nature, and their loyalties to the state. This paper argues that French Republican almanacs published in both France and the United States, even when they were impractical, relied on the generic power of almanacs to further their political cause. It also argues that these almanacs functioned as intermediaries tying together localities and ideas.