"The most celebrated radical paper of the Revolution", according to historian Jeremy D. Popkin,[1] L’Ami du peuple was a vocal advocate for the rights of the lower classes and was an outspoken critic against those Marat believed to be enemies of the people, which he had no hesitation mentioning in his writings.

When they did not take up his proposal, Marat resigned his post as elector in order to concentrate on writing a journal himself, at first entitled Le Publiciste parisien.

His continual attacks against Jacques Necker, Jean Sylvain Bailly, the comte de Mirabeau, the Paris Commune, the marquis de Lafayette, the National Constituent Assembly, the Legislative Assembly, the National Convention, the émigrés, and King Louis XVI himself caused several decrees of outlawry and accusation against him and attempts to suppress his journal.

[5] On one occasion his printer was arrested and imprisoned, and the plates used to print an especially controversial issue—in which he threatened to tear out the heart of Lafayette, burn the King, and impale the deputies of the Assembly upon their seats—were destroyed.

[13][14] His incendiary journalism is credited with playing a significant role in the Women's March on Versailles in October 1789,[15] the suspension of the monarchy on August 10, 1792,[16] the September Massacres[17] and inciting other actions of the revolutionary crowd.

[18] Marat describes the start and evolution of his journal (alongside his political views) in his journal of March 19, 1793: At the outbreak of the Revolution, wearied by the persecutions that I had experienced for so long a time at the hands of the Academy of Sciences, I eagerly embraced the occasion that presented itself of defeating my oppressors and attaining my proper position.

Disappointed in finding that it did not produce the entire effect that I had expected, and indignant that the boldness of the unfaithful representatives of the people and of the lying public officials was steadily increasing, I felt that it was necessary to renounce moderation and to substitute satire and irony for simple censure.

Strongly convinced of the absolute perversity of the supporters of the old regime and the enemies of liberty, I felt that nothing could be obtained from them except by force.