The Enlightenment; A Comparative Social History 1721-1794

by Thomas Munck

• ISBN13: 9780340663257
• ISBN10: 0340663251
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-04-13
• Publisher: Hodder Education Publishers

Summary

What did the Enlightenment mean for people who were not intellectuals or members of a wealthy elite? In this incisive new book, Thomas Munck shows the profound impact of Enlightenment ideas on a broad range of social groups. Moving beyond traditional treatments, which tend to focus on leading individuals and salon culture, Munck demonstrates that the Enlightenment can be fruitfully studied from the vantage point of ordinary people. He focuses on Paris, London, and Hamburg, but draws comparisons across much of Europe. The book begins with Montesquieu's Persian Letters in 1721 and ends with the changing direction of the French Revolution in 1794, and with a reassessment of enlightened absolutism in the light of changing relationships between state and citizen. It will be an invaluable text for courses on the Enlightenment and provides a valuable new perspective for anyone studying eighteenth-century Europe or the history of ideas.

Author Biography

Thomas Munck is a Senior Lecturer in Modern History, University of Glasgow, UK

Table of Contents

Preface	vii
The enlightenment	1	(20)
Enlightenment in national context	3	(4)
Enlightenment and counter-enlightenment	7	(4)
Nature, man and science	11	(3)
The `public sphere' and its limits	14	(4)
Enlightenment and political power	18	(3)
Tradition and communication in daily life	21	(25)
Popular and elite culture	22	(4)
Rural interaction and peasant action	26	(3)
Religious observance and beliefs	29	(8)
Processions, festivals and the use of open space	37	(3)
Street life, public entertainment and the theatre	40	(6)
Broadening the horizon: ways and means	46	(30)
Literacy	46	(6)
Education	52	(8)
Prints, pictures and the eye of the beholder	60	(5)
Venues of contact, conversation and debate	65	(7)
Political radicalism in the 1790s	72	(4)
Books and readers	76	(30)
Book production and distribution	77	(3)
Copyright and profits	80	(4)
Censorship before the reforms	84	(5)
Changing demand for books	89	(9)
Libraries and book clubs	98	(1)
The impact of the book: two case studies	99	(4)
Pamphlets and politics	103	(3)
The press	106	(26)
The Tatler and the Spectator	109	(2)
The growth of press output and readership	111	(6)
The French-language press before the Revolution	117	(5)
The press, enlightenment and change	122	(6)
Revolutionary media	128	(4)
Reason and the dissolution of certainties	132	(31)
State legislation on toleration	133	(6)
The churches under scrutiny	139	(3)
Censorship reform and state hesitations	142	(4)
The judiciary and the law	146	(4)
Crime and punishment	150	(6)
Treatment of the sick	156	(7)
Property, the underprivileged and reform	163	(30)
Taxation	164	(4)
Political economy, cameralism and the physiocrats	168	(4)
Rural reform	172	(9)
Poverty	181	(5)
Slavery and enlightenment	186	(7)
State, nation and individual in the late eighteenth century	193	(27)
Social structure, `the people' and public consensus	194	(5)
Nation, homeland and patriotic identity	199	(4)
Political rights and representation in revolutionary France	203	(8)
Representing the other half: women and public life	211	(3)
The revolution of popular politics	214	(6)
Conclusion	220	(4)
Select bibliography	224	(16)
Index	240