The French Republican Calendar: A Case Study in the Sociology of Time

This paper is a sociological analysis of the most radical attempt in modern history to challenge the Western standard temporal reference framework, namely the French Republican calendrical reform of 1793. This reform obliterated the existing system of units of time and timereckoning and dating frameworks by introducing a new annual cycle, new months, a new weekly cycle, a new subdivision of the daily cycle, and a new chronological dating framework. The paper first analyzes the symbolic function of the Revolutionary Calendar, namely, the representation of three main themes of the French Enlightenment: secularism, naturalism and rationalism. It then brings into focus three major factors which account for its failure: totality of the obliteration of the traditional sociotemporal order, overemphasis on secularization, and advocation of nationalistic particularism at the expense of a practical and cognitive disruption of temporal coordination on a global level.