The Terror of Natural Right

by Edelstein, Dan

• ISBN13: 9780226184395
• ISBN10: 0226184390
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-11-15
• Publisher: Univ of Chicago Pr

Summary

Natural rightthe idea that there is a collection of laws and rights based not on custom or belief but that are "natural" in originis typically associated with liberal politics and freedom. InThe Terror of Natural Right, Dan Edelstein argues that the revolutionaries used the natural right concept of the "enemy of the human race"an individual who has transgressed the laws of nature and must be executed without judicial formalitiesto authorize three-quarters of the deaths during the Terror. Edelstein further contends that the Jacobins shared a political philosophy that he calls "natural republicanism," which assumed that the natural state of society was a republic and that natural right provided its only acceptable laws. Ultimately, he proves that what we call the Terror was in fact only one facet of the republican theory that prevailed from Louis's trial until the fall of Robespierre.A highly original work of historical analysis, political theory, literary criticism, and intellectual history,The Terror of Natural Rightchallenges prevailing assumptions of the Terror to offer a new perspective on the Revolutionary period.

Author Biography

Dan Edelstein is associate professor of French at Stanford University and author of The Enlightenment: A Genealogy.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. ix
Introduction: To Live and Die by Nature's Laws	p. 1
Natural Right and Republicanism in France	p. 6
Natural Republicanism and the Golden Age	p. 11
"Enemies of the Human Race": Transgressing the Laws of Nature	p. 15
Natural Right and Terror Laws in the French Revolution	p. 17
Restoring the Republic of Nature: The Jacobin Project	p. 21
Prologue: Hostis Humani Generis	p. 26
Natural Man and Natural Right: New World Controversies	p. 27
The "True Ancient Enemy of the Human Race": Theology and the Devil	p. 30
Killing No Murder: Tyranny and Natural Right	p. 32
Pirates and the Law of the Land	p. 34
The Law of Nations and the Law of Nature	p. 36
Conclusion: Enlightenment and Hostility	p. 41
A Secret History of Natural Republicanism in France (1699-1791)
Imaginary Republics	p. 45
The State of Nature and the Golden Age: From Montaigne to Fénelon	p. 51
Troglodytes and Romans: Montesquieu's Two Republicanisms	p. 62
Classical Republicanism and Natural Right: Mably and Rousseau	p. 71
Finding Nature	p. 87
Republican Orientalism (Voltaire)	p. 88
Ethnography of the Golden Age: Diderot and Tahiti	p. 94
Physiocracy: Conceiving the Natural Republic	p. 101
The Politics of Sensibilité: Sylvain Maréchal, Natural Republican	p. 111
The Coming of the French Republic	p. 118
The Republic of Nature (1792-94)
Off with Their Heads: Death and the Terror	p. 127
Power to the People? Popular Violence and State Manipulation	p. 133
Terror by Committee: The Practice of Violence	p. 140
The Revolutionary Dialectic: The Counterrevolution and Cycles of Violence	p. 142
To Kill a King: Judging by Nature	p. 146
Outlawing the Nation: Natural Right and Terror Laws	p. 158
Only "Natural": Becoming a Terrorist	p. 163
The Case of the Missing Constitution: of Power and Policy	p. 170
Chronicle of a Death Foretold: A Jacobin "Conspiracy"	p. 172
The "Festival of Nature": Performing Natural Authority	p. 180
Conventions, Constitutions, and the Declaration of Rights	p. 187
Republican by Nature: Saint-Just versus the Girondins	p. 197
What's Left of the General Will?	p. 206
The Despotism of Nature: Justice and the Republic-to-Come	p. 215
Waiting for the Republic: The Revolutionary Government	p. 221
"Let Justice Be the Order of the Day": Ending "the Terror"	p. 225
One Republic under the Supreme Being: The Metaphysical Panopticon	p. 231
And Justice for All: The Law of 22 Prairial	p. 249
"System of Terror" or Natural Republic?	p. 253
Conclusion: Legacies of the Terror	p. 257
From a Natural Republic to a World Revolution	p. 260
Terror and Totalitarianism	p. 263
Two Concepts of Exceptionality	p. 271
Bibliography	p. 277
Index	p. 313
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