Capitalism and the emergence of civic equality in eighteenth-century France / William H. Sewell, Jr.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Sewell, William H., Jr., 1940- author.

Series:

Chicago studies in practices of meaning.

Chicago scholarship online.

Chicago studies in practices of meaning

Chicago scholarship online

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Social change--Economic aspects--France--History--18th century.

Social change.

Capitalism--France--History--18th century.

Capitalism.

France--Civilization--18th century.

France.

France--Economic conditions--18th century.

France--Social conditions--18th century.

France--Intellectual life--18th century.

France--Commerce--History--18th century.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (421 pages) : illustrations

Place of Publication:

Chicago : The University of Chicago Press, 2021.

Summary:

In the mid-twentieth century it was widely thought that the French Revolution was caused by a rising bourgeoisie that overthrew the nobility and monarchy and established a new capitalist society. But the discovery that capitalists were rare among revolutionaries led most historians to deny a link between capitalism and the Revolution. This book argues that capitalism was in fact linked to the Revolution, but in a quite different way.

Contents:

Intro

Contents

Introduction: The French Revolution and the Shock of Civic Equality

1. Old Regime State and Society

2. The Eighteenth-Century Economy: Commerce and Capitalism

I. The Emergence of an Urban Public

3. The Commercial Public Sphere

4. The Empire of Fashion

5. The Parisian Promenade

II. The Philosophes and the Career Open to Talent

6. The Philosophe Career and the Impossible Example of Voltaire

7. Denis Diderot: Living by the Pen

8. The Abbé Morellet: Between Publishing and Patronage

9. Jean-Jacques Rousseau: Self-Deceived Clientage

III. Royal Administration and the Promise of Political Economy

10. Tocqueville's Challenge: Royal Administration and the Rise of Civic Equality

11. Warfare, Taxes, and Administrative Centralization: The Double Bind of Royal Finance

12. Political Economy: A Solution to the Double Bind?

13. Navigating the Double Bind: Efforts at Reform

Conclusion: The Revolution and the Advent of Civic Equality

Epilogue: Civic Equality and the Continuing History of Capitalism

Acknowledgments

References

Index.

Notes:

Also issued in print: 2021.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from home page (viewed on December 7, 2021).

ISBN:

9780226770635

022677063X

OCLC:

1246580933