Sans-Culottes: An Eighteenth-Century Emblem in the French Revolution

This is a bold new history of the sans-culottes and the part they played in the French Revolution. It tells for the first time the real story of the name now usually associated with urban violence and popular politics during the revolutionary period. By doing so, it also shows how the politics and economics of the revolution can be combined to form a genuinely historical narrative of its content and course. To explain how an early eighteenth-century salon society joke about breeches and urbanity was transformed into a republican emblem, Sans-Culottes examines contemporary debates about Ciceronian, Cynic, and Cartesian moral philosophy, as well as subjects ranging from music and the origins of government to property and the nature of the human soul. By piecing together this now forgotten story, Michael Sonenscher opens up new perspectives on the Enlightenment, eighteenth-century moral and political philosophy, the thought of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and the political history of the French Revolution itself.

Table of Contents:
List of Illustrations vii Acknowledgements ix Abbreviations and a Note on Translations xi Chapter 1: Introduction: "One of the Most Interesting Pairs of Breeches Recorded in Modern History" 1 Chapter 2: An Ingenious Emblem 57 New Year's Gifts and an Eighteenth-Century French Joke 57 Fashion's Empire: The Moral Foundations of Salon Society 77 A "Poor Devil": The Short, Unhappy Life of Nicolas-Joseph-Laurent Gilbert 101 Mercier and Rousseau: Vitalist and Contractual Conceptions of Political Society 110 Chapter 3: Diogenes and Rousseau: Music, Morality, and Society 134 Diogenes and the Ambiguities of Cynic Philosophy 134 Jean-Jacques Rousseau and the Politics of Public Opinion 147 Rousseau and His Cynic Critics 164 John Brown and the Progress of Civilisation 178 "That Subtle Diogenes": Immanuel Kant and Rousseau's Dilemmas 195 Chapter 4: Property, Equality, and the Passions in Eighteenth-Century French Thought 202 Reform, Revolution, and the Problem of State Power 202 Property and the Limits of State Power 221 Physiocracy, Reform, and the Fruits of the Tree of Life 248 John Law's Legacy and the Aftermath of Physiocracy 260 Dominique-Joseph Garat, the Modern Idea of Happiness, and the Dilemmas of Reform 273 Chapter 5: The Entitlements of Merit 283 Visions of Patriotism 283 The Army and Its Problems in the Eighteenth Century 288 Constitutional Government, Taxation, and Equality 296 Political Liberty, Public Finance, and Public Worship 305 Etienne Claviere, Law's System, and French Liberty 315 Feuillants and Brissotins 324 Antoine-Joseph Gorsas and the Politics of Revolutionary Satire 338 Chapter 6: Conclusion: Democracy and Terror 362 Politics and History in Jacobin Thought 362 Rousseau and Revolution 367 Mably, Rousseau, and Robespierre 372 Epilogue 407 Bibliography 425 Index 475

About the Author :
Michael Sonenscher is a fellow of King's College, University of Cambridge. His books include Before the Deluge: Public Debt, Inequality, and the Intellectual Origins of the French Revolution (Princeton); Work and Wages: Natural Law, Politics and the Eighteenth-Century French Trades; and The Hatters of Eighteenth-Century France.

Review :
"This is intellectual history as free jazz. Sonenscher rips and riffs through the links to be made between all manner of ideas across several generations of salon conversation and erudite writing... This work's contribution ... to illuminating the complexity of eighteenth-century French intellectual history cannot be gainsaid."--David Andress, Times Literary Supplement "Close attention to his text will be repaid with a deepened awareness of the variety and power of the political writing in circulation in the late monarchy. He succeeds completely in establishing that political life was in most respects richer and more full of nuance than we might imagine."--James Livesey, American Historical Review "Sans-Culottes is a challenging read, not least because of its style and structure. Sonenscher juggles a dizzying array of primary sources... That said, the payoffs to reading this book are tremendous."--Charles Walton, H-France Forum "Sonenscher is brilliant... He is equally path-breaking... Sonenscher provides the most convincing account of the nature of the ideological divisions of 1789?91... In providing an overview ... Sonenscher shows what has been missed by historians of the French Revolution."--Richard Whatmore, Reviews in History "Sonenscher's insights into the moral and economic history of prerevolutionary France are wide ranging and extremely well documented; few can rival his breadth."--Julia V. Douthwaite, Eighteenth-Century Studies "As someone who has transformed himself during this period from a distinguished social historian to a leading expert on eighteenth century political thought, Sonenscher's professional career mirrors the trajectory scholarship of the Revolution has taken in his lifetime... [T]he new book is the result of twenty-five years' patient advancing of what it is possible to know about the French Revolution and, at its heart, the elusive sans-culottes."--Ruth Scurr, Modern Intellectual History "[T]he author succeeds in forcing the reader outside the comfort zone of more traditional approaches in an intellectual tour de force that no historian of the Revolution can safely ignore."--Hugh Gough, Historian "Sonenscher's opera magna constitute an enormous achievement. Revealing a new face of eighteenth-century intellectual history and recovering a myriad of forgotten works, they are sure to be read--indeed to be used as references--for years to come."--Carolina Armenteros, French History