The rise of the public in Enlightenment Europe / James Van Horn Melton.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Melton, James Van Horn, 1952- author.

Series:

New approaches to European history ; 23.

New approaches to European history ; 23

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Enlightenment--Europe.

Enlightenment.

Civil society--Europe--History--18th century.

Civil society.

Printing--Social aspects--Europe--18th century.

Printing.

Europe--Social life and customs--18th century.

Europe.

Europe--Intellectual life--18th century.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xiv, 284 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2001.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

James Melton's lucid and accessible 2001 study examines the rise of 'the public' in eighteenth-century Europe. A work of comparative synthesis focusing on England, France and the German-speaking territories, this was the first book-length, critical reassessment of what Habermas termed the 'bourgeois public sphere'. During the Enlightenment the Public assumed a new significance as governments came to recognise the power of public opinion in political life; the expansion of print culture created new reading publics and transformed how and what people read; authors and authorship acquired new status, while the growth of commercialized theatres transferred monopoly over the stage from the court to the audience; salons, coffeehouses, taverns and Masonic lodges fostered new practices of sociability. Spanning a variety of disciplines, this important addition to the New Approaches in European History series will be of great interest to students of social and political history, literary studies, political theory, and the history of women.

Contents:

Introduction: What is the public sphere?

pt. 1. Politics and the rise of "public opinion": the cases of England and France: The peculiarities of the English

Opacity and transparency: French political culture in the eighteenth century

pt. 2. Readers, writers, and spectators: Reading publics: transformations of the literary public sphere

Writing publics: eighteenth-century authorship

From courts to consumers: theater publics

pt. 3. Being sociable: Women in public: Enlightenment salons

Drinking in public: taverns and coffeehouses

Freemasonry: toward civil society.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 05 Oct 2015).

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

1-107-11245-1

1-280-15185-4

0-511-81942-0

0-511-11615-2

0-511-01907-6

0-511-15421-6

0-511-55554-7

0-511-05300-2

OCLC:

559319727