She argues that although every one accepts that the revolutionary decade was a turning point in history most schools of historians concentrate on its origins and outcomes rather than its practices, the revolutionary experience. The Revolution created a new political lite, united by common language, imagery and gestures. Once revolutionaries acted on Rousseau's belief that government could form a new people, the West was never again the same. Language was used, as were festivals, to create an identity, to express collective needs, to form a new nation, to promote cultural and national integration. This was reflected both in the development of a new political language and in the growth of festivals during the Revolution.
Hunt argues that part of the revolutionary language derives from the fear in France of conspiracy.
Radical journalists like Marat and H bert specialised in a rhetoric of denunciation and similar talk was present at every level of political meeting from 1789. By 1793 the phraseology of conspiracy had become an everyday part of revolutionary discourse and was made part of the Terror. It was the watchword of the radicals but was most effective in the hands of the conservatives who used it to denounce the revolutionaries, especially after the death of Robespierre. By it every one became a suspect and their associates were equally suspect. The best known of these female figures is the goddess of Liberty, Marianne, used as the seal of the Republic in 1792.