Bryan A. Banks – författare

The revocation of the Edict of Nantes led more than 200,000 Huguenots to flee France after 1685. Many settled close to the country’s frontiers, where their leaders published apologetic texts arguing for their right to return to France and be recognized as French citizens. By framing their refugee experiences intentionally, even using the term “refugee” to describe their diaspora, Huguenots profoundly influenced Enlightenment debates on citizenship and religious tolerance.Write to Return is a cultural history of these Huguenot apologetics in which Bryan Banks examines the work of four authors: Pierre Jurieu, Pierre Bayle, Antoine Court, and Jean-Paul Rabaut Saint-Étienne. Each author advanced his arguments using key ideas of the Enlightenment, appealing to reason to argue for freedom of conscience all while appealing to emotion in his descriptions of Huguenot victimhood. The authors’ campaign succeeded. In 1789, France’s revolutionary National Assembly granted repatriation to all expelled Huguenots, offering them citizenship regardless of place of birth or baptism, and even permitting them to reclaim ancestral lands.International refugees played an overlooked role in shaping discourse around the nation and nationalism in the eighteenth century. Write to Return shows how early modern refugees could advocate for their interests, build international networks, and even craft a new collective identity. By presenting themselves as loyal citizens of France, Huguenots were at the forefront of constructing a French national identity.

Redrawing the map and resetting the clock of the Age of RevolutionsIn 2015, Bryan Banks and Cindy Ermus launched AgeofRevolutions.com, a site offering critical reconsideration of the foundational concept of revolution and centered on three key questions: What was the Age of Revolutions? Where was the Age of Revolutions? And are we still living in an Age of Revolutions? This collection represents the best of scholars' answers to these expansive, urgent questions. Throughout, contributors place the revolutionary era within a larger and more fluid context of global interconnections, situating it within multiple overlapping narratives of resistance and transformation and encouraging a more nuanced and expansive conception of revolution across time and space. They challenge traditional understandings that placed the Age of Revolutions between the years 1775 and 1848 and that confined it to Europe and the Atlantic world. Instead, this volume demonstrates that the Age of Revolutions began much earlier in the eighteenth century and continues through the present day and across the globe—from Haiti to Hong Kong. Collectively, these field-defining essays explore the implications of this new understanding of the concept, offering snapshots of the diverse nature of revolutionary change across all continents.

Redrawing the map and resetting the clock of the Age of RevolutionsIn 2015, Bryan Banks and Cindy Ermus launched AgeofRevolutions.com, a site offering critical reconsideration of the foundational concept of revolution and centered on three key questions: What was the Age of Revolutions? Where was the Age of Revolutions? And are we still living in an Age of Revolutions? This collection represents the best of scholars' answers to these expansive, urgent questions. Throughout, contributors place the revolutionary era within a larger and more fluid context of global interconnections, situating it within multiple overlapping narratives of resistance and transformation and encouraging a more nuanced and expansive conception of revolution across time and space. They challenge traditional understandings that placed the Age of Revolutions between the years 1775 and 1848 and that confined it to Europe and the Atlantic world. Instead, this volume demonstrates that the Age of Revolutions began much earlier in the eighteenth century and continues through the present day and across the globe—from Haiti to Hong Kong. Collectively, these field-defining essays explore the implications of this new understanding of the concept, offering snapshots of the diverse nature of revolutionary change across all continents.

This volume examines the French Revolution’s relationship with and impact on religious communities and religion in a transnational perspective.