If you think about the French revolutionary tradition, you’re most likely to picture the storming of the Bastille and the overthrow of the monarchy. But that wasn’t the first time there was a major uprising against the established order in France.

In the second half of the fourteenth century, there was a popular revolt known as the Jacquerie, which terrified the French ruling class. They drowned the revolt in blood and set about demonizing the peasants who took part in it. It was only in the wake of a successful revolution four centuries later that historians began taking a fresh look at the Jacquerie.

Justine Firnhaber-Baker is a professor of history at the University of St Andrews and the author of The Jacquerie of 1358: A French Peasants’ Revolt, the first major study of the Jacquerie since the nineteenth century. This is an edited transcript from Jacobin Radio’s Long Reads podcast. You can listen to the interview here.