A Rhetoric of Bourgeois Revolution

by Sewell, William Hamilton; Kaplan, Steven Laurence; Baker, Keith Michael

• ISBN13: 9780822315384
• ISBN10: 0822315386
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1994-12-01
• Publisher: Duke Univ Pr

Summary

What Is the Third Estate?was the most influential pamphlet of 1789. It did much to set the French Revolution on a radically democratic course. It also launched its author, the Abbeacute; Sieyes, on a remarkable political career that spanned the entire revolutionary decade. Sieyes both opened the revolution by authoring the National Assemblyrs"s declaration of sovereignty in June of 1789 and closed it in 1799 by engineering Napoleon Bonaparters"s coup drs"eacute;tat. This book studies the powerful rhetoric of the great pamphlet and the brilliant but enigmatic thought of its author. William H. Sewellrs"s insightful analysis reveals the fundamental role played by the new discourse of political economy in Sieyesrs"s thought and uncovers the strategies by which this gifted rhetorician gained the assent of his intended readers-educated and prosperous bourgeois who felt excluded by the nobility in the hierarchical social order of the old regime. He also probes the contradictions and incoherencies of the pamphletrs"s highly polished text to reveal fissures that reach to the core of Sieyesrs"s thought-and to the core of the revolutionary project itself. Combining techniques of intellectual history and literary analysis with a deep understanding of French social and political history, Sewell not only fashions an illuminating portrait of a crucial political document, but outlines a fresh perspective on the history of revolutionary political culture.

Table of Contents

Editor's Introduction
Preface
Introduction	p. 1
What Is the Third Estate?	p. 41
Political Economy, Social Contract, and Representation: The Foundations of Sieyes's Political Thought	p. 66
What Is Privilege? A Rhetoric of Amnesia	p. 109
What Is the Citizen? The Denial of Political Equality	p. 145
An Uncontrollable Revolution	p. 185
Epilogue: The Paradoxical History of Sieyes's Rhetorical Devices	p. 198
Bibliography	p. 205
Index	p. 213
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