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The Writing Public: Participatory Knowledge Production in Enlightenment and Revolutionary France

Author
Bond, Elizabeth Andrews
Abstract
Inspired by the reading and writing habits of citizens leading up to the French Revolution, The Writing Public is a compelling addition to the long-running debate about the link between the Enlightenment and the political struggle that followed. Elizabeth Andrews Bond scoured France's local newspapers spanning the two decades prior to the Revolution as well as its first three years, shining a light on the letters to the editor. A form of early social media, these letters constituted a lively and ongoing conversation among readers. Bond takes us beyond the glamorous salons of the intelligentsia into the everyday worlds of the craftsmen, clergy, farmers, and women who composed these letters. As a result, we get a fascinating glimpse into who participated in public discourse, what they most wanted to discuss, and how they shaped a climate of opinion. The Writing Public offers a novel examination of how French citizens used the information press to form norms of civic discourse and shape the experience of revolution. The result is a nuanced analysis of knowledge production during the Enlightenment.
Sponsorship
The Ohio State University / TOME (Towards an Open Monograph Ecosystem)
Date Issued
2021Publisher
Cornell University Press
Subject
Letters to the editor; affiches; pre-revolutionary press; revolutionary press; the practical Enlightenment; knowledge production; European History; Literary & Cultural Studies
ISBN
9781501753589 (PDF ebook) 9781501753572 (epub) 9781501753565 (print)
Rights
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
Type
book
Accessibility Feature
reading order; structural navigation; display transformability
Accessibility Hazard
none
Accessibility Summary
"Accessibility Feature(s)" apply only to the EPUB file.
The following license files are associated with this item:
Except where otherwise noted, this item's license is described as Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International