<P> Hanson notes, "The guillotine stands as the principal symbol of the Terror in the French Revolution ." Invented by a physician during the Revolution as a quicker, more efficient and more distinctive form of execution, the guillotine became a part of popular culture and historic memory . It was celebrated on the left as the people's avenger and cursed as the symbol of the Reign of Terror by the right . Its operation became a popular entertainment that attracted great crowds of spectators . Vendors sold programmes listing the names of those scheduled to die . Many people came day after day and vied for the best locations from which to observe the proceedings; knitting women (tricoteuses) formed a cadre of hardcore regulars, inciting the crowd . Parents often brought their children . By the end of the Terror, the crowds had thinned drastically . Repetition had staled even this most grisly of entertainments, and audiences grew bored . </P> <P> What it is that horrifies people changes over time . Doyle comments: </P> <Dl> <Dd> Even the unique horror of the guillotine has been dwarfed by the gas chambers of the Holocaust, the organized brutality of the gulag, the mass intimidation of Mao's cultural revolution, or the killing fields of Cambodia . </Dd> </Dl> <Dd> Even the unique horror of the guillotine has been dwarfed by the gas chambers of the Holocaust, the organized brutality of the gulag, the mass intimidation of Mao's cultural revolution, or the killing fields of Cambodia . </Dd>

Who were the rebels in the french revolution