Jack R. Censer – författare

Press and Politics in Pre-Revolutionary France offers a groundbreaking reassessment of the role of the press in shaping public opinion and political culture in eighteenth-century France. Traditionally, historians have viewed the French Revolution as a sharp break in press history, marking the transition from an authoritarian model under the monarchy to an unregulated, libertarian press after 1789. However, this collection of essays argues that the transformation was more gradual, with significant elements of a free press emerging well before the Revolution. By examining periodicals that operated outside the official framework—such as the Gazette de Leyde, the Courrier d'Avignon, and the Journal des dames—the contributors reveal a vibrant, semi-independent press that helped shape the political discourse of the era.This volume situates the pre-revolutionary press within a broader historiographical debate about the nature of the French Revolution itself. Were the upheavals of 1789 a radical break with the past, or did they build upon long-standing political and cultural shifts? The authors make a compelling case for continuity, showing how informal mechanisms of political engagement—through the press, reading groups, and Masonic lodges—created a space for public debate that eroded absolutist control well before the Revolution. With its meticulous case studies and theoretical insights, Press and Politics in Pre-Revolutionary France is an essential resource for scholars of media history, political culture, and the origins of modern democracy.This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1987.

Press and Politics in Pre-Revolutionary France offers a groundbreaking reassessment of the role of the press in shaping public opinion and political culture in eighteenth-century France. Traditionally, historians have viewed the French Revolution as a sharp break in press history, marking the transition from an authoritarian model under the monarchy to an unregulated, libertarian press after 1789. However, this collection of essays argues that the transformation was more gradual, with significant elements of a free press emerging well before the Revolution. By examining periodicals that operated outside the official framework—such as the Gazette de Leyde, the Courrier d'Avignon, and the Journal des dames—the contributors reveal a vibrant, semi-independent press that helped shape the political discourse of the era.This volume situates the pre-revolutionary press within a broader historiographical debate about the nature of the French Revolution itself. Were the upheavals of 1789 a radical break with the past, or did they build upon long-standing political and cultural shifts? The authors make a compelling case for continuity, showing how informal mechanisms of political engagement—through the press, reading groups, and Masonic lodges—created a space for public debate that eroded absolutist control well before the Revolution. With its meticulous case studies and theoretical insights, Press and Politics in Pre-Revolutionary France is an essential resource for scholars of media history, political culture, and the origins of modern democracy.This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1987.

This book focuses on the fate of human rights outside of the United States and over time. The first two contributions center on the French experience, especially the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen of the French Revolution. The last two evaluate the way that the rights born in the eighteenth century evolved throughout the world during the last two hundred years. Although the articles attempt to characterize human rights, they disagree on how one ought to appreciate these liberties. Those articles on France raise questions regarding rights and suggest that in certain circumstances these freedoms can lead to certain unforeseen difficulties; they argue that the Declaration of the Rights of Man was the final step in solidifying a revolution in which the right to liberty was sacrificed to the right to equality. Confronting this position are the last two essays committed to a belief that in the infinite expansion of rights of all sorts lies the best path to human dignity. Contributors include Philippe Roger, Francois Furet, Ron Malevi, Louis Merkin and Goler Teal Butcher.

PRAISE FOR A CULTURAL HISTORY OF IDEAS: VOLUMES 1-6A 2024 CHOICE OUTSTANDING ACADEMIC TITLE2023 AAP PROSE AWARDS WINNER: BEST HUMANITIES REFERENCE WORKThis volume of A Cultural History of Ideas focuses on the culture of the Enlightenment, long believed a time of enormous intellectual innovation and ferment. However elusive the precise connection between ideas and culture in this period, the emergent mixture resonated throughout the West and beyond.This volume features essays by ten eminent scholars who consider nine different areas of intellectual investigation: knowledge, concepts of self, society and ethics, economics and politics, nature and natural law, religion, literature, the arts, and history. In all of these areas, Enlightenment culture meant the development of modern values sharply at odds with the Old Regime in which they were embedded. These essays, with their many connections, reveal Enlightenment ideas and cultural innovations as products of a world expanded and rethought in the course of the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries as a result of enhanced trade and exploration, new notions of sociability, a media revolution, and major political and economic developments.The 6-volume set A Cultural History of Ideas is part of The Cultural Histories Series. Titles are available in print for individuals or for libraries needing just one subject or preferring a tangible reference for their shelves or as part of a fully-searchable digital library. The digital product is available to institutions by annual subscription or on perpetual access via www.bloomsburyculturalhistory.com. Individual volumes for academics and researchers interested in specific historical periods are also available in print or digitally via www.bloomsburycollections.com.

In this book Lynn Hunt and Jack R. Censer lucidly trace events from 1789 until the fall of Napoleon, stressing the global dimensions of the French Revolution and offering balanced coverage of both its causes and outcomes. In doing so, Hunt and Censer reaffirm its huge significance for the modern political world in the process.Hunt and Censer give due attention to global competition, fiscal crisis, slavery and the beginnings of nationalism alongside more traditional topics, such as human rights and constitutions, terror and violence, and the rise of authoritarianism. This global lens allows the authors to convincingly demonstrate how the French Revolution and Napoleonic Empire fundamentally altered the political landscapes of Europe, the Americas, North Africa and parts of Asia as well. The book also contains end-of-chapter questions, timelines and a wealth of primary source extracts for analysis and class discussion.This 2nd edition has been fully updated throughout and now includes:· A new first chapter which greatly enhances the wider 18th-century background material. It explains how events, trends, and personalities from the 1770s onwards created an opening that was turned into a world-shattering revolution.· A historiography textbox feature in each chapter that addresses topics and individuals like Louis XVI, terror, Robespierre and the Haitian Revolution. The feature sees two contrasting excerpts analysed and contextualized in each case.· 18 further images and 6 more maps for a stronger visual aspect and better geographical context.

In this book Lynn Hunt and Jack R. Censer lucidly trace events from 1789 until the fall of Napoleon, stressing the global dimensions of the French Revolution and offering balanced coverage of both its causes and outcomes. In doing so, Hunt and Censer reaffirm its huge significance for the modern political world in the process.Hunt and Censer give due attention to global competition, fiscal crisis, slavery and the beginnings of nationalism alongside more traditional topics, such as human rights and constitutions, terror and violence, and the rise of authoritarianism. This global lens allows the authors to convincingly demonstrate how the French Revolution and Napoleonic Empire fundamentally altered the political landscapes of Europe, the Americas, North Africa and parts of Asia as well. The book also contains end-of-chapter questions, timelines and a wealth of primary source extracts for analysis and class discussion.This 2nd edition has been fully updated throughout and now includes:· A new first chapter which greatly enhances the wider 18th-century background material. It explains how events, trends, and personalities from the 1770s onwards created an opening that was turned into a world-shattering revolution.· A historiography textbox feature in each chapter that addresses topics and individuals like Louis XVI, terror, Robespierre and the Haitian Revolution. The feature sees two contrasting excerpts analysed and contextualized in each case.· 18 further images and 6 more maps for a stronger visual aspect and better geographical context.

PRAISE FOR A CULTURAL HISTORY OF IDEAS: VOLUMES 1-6A 2024 CHOICE OUTSTANDING ACADEMIC TITLE2023 AAP PROSE AWARDS WINNER: BEST HUMANITIES REFERENCE WORKThis volume of A Cultural History of Ideas focuses on the culture of the Enlightenment, long believed a time of enormous intellectual innovation and ferment. However elusive the precise connection between ideas and culture in this period, the emergent mixture resonated throughout the West and beyond.This volume features essays by ten eminent scholars who consider nine different areas of intellectual investigation: knowledge, concepts of self, society and ethics, economics and politics, nature and natural law, religion, literature, the arts, and history. In all of these areas, Enlightenment culture meant the development of modern values sharply at odds with the Old Regime in which they were embedded. These essays, with their many connections, reveal Enlightenment ideas and cultural innovations as products of a world expanded and rethought in the course of the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries as a result of enhanced trade and exploration, new notions of sociability, a media revolution, and major political and economic developments.The 6-volume set A Cultural History of Ideas is part of The Cultural Histories Series. Titles are available in print for individuals or for libraries needing just one subject or preferring a tangible reference for their shelves or as part of a fully-searchable digital library. The digital product is available to institutions by annual subscription or on perpetual access via www.bloomsburyculturalhistory.com. Individual volumes for academics and researchers interested in specific historical periods are also available in print or digitally via www.bloomsburycollections.com.

Revolution is an idea that has been one of the most important drivers of human activity since its emergence in its modern form in the 18th century. From the American and French revolutionaries who upset a monarchical order that had dominated for over a millennium up to the Arab Spring, this notion continues but has also developed its meanings. Equated with democracy and legal equality at first and surprisingly redefined into its modern meaning, revolution has become a means to create nations, change the social order, and throw out colonial occupiers, and has been labelled as both conservative and reactionary.In this concise introduction to the topic, Jack R. Censer charts the development of these competing ideas and definitions in four chronological sections. Each section includes a debate from protagonists who represent various forms of revolution and counterrevolution, allowing students a firmer grasp on the particular ideas and individuals of each era. This book offers a new approach to the topic of revolution for all students of world history.