The Darnton debate : books and revolution in the eighteenth century

Author(s)

• Mason, Haydn Trevor
• Voltaire Foundation

Bibliographic Information

The Darnton debate : books and revolution in the eighteenth century

edited by Haydn T. Mason

（Studies on Voltaire and the eighteenth century / edited by Theodore Besterman, 359）

Voltaire Foundation, 1998

Note

Text includes articles in English and French

Includes bibliographical references and index

Contents of Works

• Trading places? England 1689 - France 1789 / D.F. McKenzie
• Le savant, le chat et le cataplasme / Roland Mortier
• Le rendez-vous manqué de Bougainville: du voyage au livre / François Moureau
• French women in print, 1750-1800: an essay in historical bibliography / Carla Hesse
• The history of books: revised and enlarged / Jonathan Rose
• Robert Darnton's alternative (to the) Enlightenment / Jeremy D. Popkin
• The great Enlightenment massacre / Daniel Gordon
• Bypassing the Enlightenment: taking an underground route to revolution / Elizabeth L. Eisenstein
• Why books caused a revolution: a reading of Robert Darnton / David A. Bell
• Enlightenment, public opinion and politics in the work of Robert Darnton / Thomas E. Kaiser
• Beyond empiricism: a comment on Robert Darnton's work / Renato Pasta
• Pour de nouvelles approches des archives de la Société Typographique de Neuchâtel / Dominique Varry
• Two paths through the social history of ideas / Robert Darnton

Description and Table of Contents

Description

Ever since Professor Robert Darnton aroused the interest of all Enlightenment scholars with the publication of 'The High Enlightenment and the low-life literature in pre-revolutionary France' in 1971, he has been in the forefront of debate about that period and the French Revolution which followed it. His work has long been an indispensable study for all those who ponder on the nature and evolution of these great movements. By the mid 1990s, however, it was apparent that Darnton's far-reaching conclusions on the relationship of the Enlightenment to the Revolution, together with his historical accounts of printed works and the mentalites of the eighteenth century, merited a comprehensive debate on his whole oeuvre. The present collection sparks off that debate. The contributors to this volume were invited freely to address any particular aspect of Robert Darnton's researches or to discuss the whole trust of his thinking about the past. Darnton readily agreed to this proposal, encouraging the editor to send invitations to long-standing critics just as much as to more sympathetic readers. The essays collected here respond to the original request, in diverse ways. Taking up a whole spectrum of positions about Darnton's work, they attempt an answer based on deep reflection or assiduous source-research or both. In a coda to the volume Robert Darnton responds robustly to the various readings of his work. In places he seeks to rescue it from what he considers to be false interpretations and to set the record straight. But his essay is not just a rebuttal. It moves the debate on, bringing new insights and information not previously published. His conclusion are as flexible open-ended as one could wish, and in line with which they have been richly plumbed in his writings. The threads running through the various essays are drawn together by a comprehensive index of eighteenth-century persons and writings.

Table of Contents

List of illustrations Foreword D.F McKenzie, Trading places? England 1689-France 1789 Roland Mortier, Le savant, le chat et le cataplasme Francois Moureau, Le rendez-vous manque de Bougainville: du voyage au livre Carla Hesse, French women in print, 1750-1800: an essay in historical bibliography Jonathan Rose, The history of books: revised and enlarged Jeremy D. Popkin, Robert Darnton's alternative (to the) Enlightenment Daniel Gordon, The great Enlightenment massacre Elizabeth L. Eisenstein, Bypassing the Enlightenment: taking an underground route to revolution David A. Bell, Why books caused a revolution: a reading of Robert Darnton Thomas E. Kaiser, Enlightenment, public opinion and politics in the work of robert Darnton Dominique Varry, Pour de nouvelles approches des archives de la Societe Typographique de Neuchatel Robert Darnton, Two paths through the social history of ideas Works by Robert Darnton cited in this volume Index of persons and publications

by "Nielsen BookData"

• NCID: BA37252252
• ISBN:
  • 0729405664
• LCCN: 98189400
• Country Code: uk
• Title Language Code: eng
• Text Language Code: engfre
• Place of Publication: Oxford
• Pages/Volumes: ix, 305 p.
• Size: 24 cm
• Classification:
  • LCC : PQ2105.A2
  • LCC : PQ67.D37
• Subject Headings:
  • LCSH : Darnton, Robert
  • LCSH : French literature -- 18th century -- History and criticism
  • LCSH : Enlightenment -- Europe -- History and criticism
  • LCSH : Publishers and publishing -- Europe -- History and criticism
  • LCSH : France -- Intellectual life -- 18th century
  • LCSH : France -- History -- Revolution, 1789-1799
• Parent Bibliography ID:
  • BA0040253X