The Enlightenment in Practice: Academic Prize Contests and Intellectual Culture in France, 1670–1794

Jeremy L. Caradonna

Published by Cornell University Press 2012

The Enlightenment in Practice

Academic Prize Contests and Intellectual Culture in France, 1670–1794

Jeremy L. Caradonna

https://doi.org/10.7591/9780801463907

Overview
Contents

About this book

Jeremy L. Caradonna draws on archives both in Paris and the provinces of France to show that thousands of individuals participated in intellectual competitions during the Enlightenment.

Author / Editor information

Jeremy L. Caradonna is Associate Professor of History at the University of Alberta.

Reviews

Jeremy D. Popkin, University of Kentucky, author of News and Politics in the Age of Revolution:

If this impressive book were an entry in an eighteenth-century French academic concours, it would certainly deserve a prize. Jeremy L. Caradonna has taken an aspect of the French Enlightenment of which scholars have been vaguely aware and researched it thoroughly. He demonstrates the importance of academic prize competitions in the culture of the period and makes a persuasive case for his claim that his findings require us to recognize that the Enlightenment was a considerably more open and inclusive movement than has been previously realized.

William Beik:

This book adds an important dimension to our understanding of the cultural climate in prerevolutionary France. Mobilizing an impressive body of research on the academies and their prize contestants, Cardonna also presents their story in clear, beautifully organized prose.

Jérôme Loiseau:

At ?rst glance, Jeremy Caradonna's book is a new study about the world of academies in France that follows and complements similar works by Daniel Roche..Readers will enjoy this well-written and well-constructed history, which adds an important piece to the puzzle of the history of the Enlightenment. In addition, the book o?ers a new perspective on modern state building in underlining the rise of public expertise, a path that should be continued in the future.

Ronald Schechter:

The Enlightenment in Practice is a remarkable achievement. It is a tour de force that will make us think differently about the Enlightenment for a long time to come. The author who has uncovered so much about academic prizes deserves one himself.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Acknowledgments Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	ix
Note on Abbreviations and Translation Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	xi
Map of France Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	xii
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
1. The Rebirth of the Concours Académique: Cultural Politics and the Domestication of Letters in the Age of Louis XIV Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	14
2. À la Recherche du Concours Académique Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	40
3. The Participatory Enlightenment Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	88
4. Dijon Revisited: Rousseau’s First Discourse from the Perspective of the Concours Académique Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	118
5. The Concours Académique, Political Culture, and the Critical Public Sphere Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	143
6. The Practical Enlightenment: The Concours Académique, the State, and the Pursuit of Expertise Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	180
7. Prize Contests in the Revolutionary Crucible: Decline and Regeneration Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	202
Conclusion: The Enlightenment in Question Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	220
Appendixes
A. Academies and Societies in France That Held Public Prize Contests from the Fourteenth Century to 1794 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	227
B. Female Laureates of the Concours Académique, 1671–1790 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	229
C. Contests founded by the Abbé Raynal Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	233
D. Contests on Poverty, Begging, and Poor Relief Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	237
E. Contests Related to Urban Drinking Water Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	239
F. List of Prize Contests Offered by Academies, Scholarly Societies, and Agricultural Societies in Continental France from 1670 to 1794 (available at http://www.jeremycaradonna.com) Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	240
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	241
Works Cited Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	297
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	325

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Audience: General/trade;
Pages
- Main content: 352
Keywords: french enlightenment; concours acedemique; intellectualism; education of women; french poverty; french tax reform; intellectual competition

eBook

Published: March 15, 2012
ISBN: 9780801463907