Social Circle
Social Circle
a political club, founded in Paris in late 1789 and early 1790 by N. de Bonneville and the Abbe C. Fauchet. The Social Circle directed a broader organization, the World Federation of Friends of the Truth, formed in 1790. Its press organ was the newspaper La Bouche defer, which often advocated egalitarian and Utopian ideas.
Some Social Circle leaders took part in the republican movement during the crisis of Varennes, when the king of France’s attempt to flee the country set off a bitter struggle between the monarchists and the people, who were demanding the proclamation of a republic. In 1791, owing to its extremely heterogeneous membership, the Social Circle disintegrated. In 1792 and 1793 most former Social Circle members supported the Girondins.