Peter Burke. Languages and Communities in Early Modern Europe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004

2006 ◽  
Vol 48 (1) ◽  
pp. 235-236
Author(s):  
Emily Carter
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
French Revolution ◽  
Early Modern Period ◽  
Historical Narrative ◽  
Early Modern Europe ◽  
Language Mixing ◽  
Organic Growth ◽  
Modern Europe ◽  
Linguistic Purism

What is the relationship between language and community in early modern Europe? How is language ‘discovered’ during this time and what are the tensions and changes in community wrought with and by this discovery? These are the questions that Peter Burke's Languages and Communities in Early Modern Europe asks as he brings much needed attention to the distinctive role of language in both expressing and constituting community and vice versa in the early modern period. Burke's work is structured around five thematic trends embedded in a historical framework: (1) the continued importance of Latin, (2) vernaculars competing for dominance in newly available domains, (3) standardization before ‘language policy,’ (4) the centripetal force of language mixing, and (5) the centrifugal force of language purism. All of these prefigured the new link between language and nation that developed from the French Revolution onwards. By engaging with the multiple and inter-animated languages and communities of Europe during this time, Burke provides a counterpoint to national(ist) histories, which create a simplified picture of the organic growth of a single language and claim an isomorphic relationship with community as (proto-)nation. Burke focuses on the standardization of vernaculars in tension with increased codification of Latin and a new linguistic purism reacting to an increase in and even celebration of language mixing, and thereby resists subordinating complexity to a historical narrative.

scholarly journals The rise of prosociality in fiction preceded democratic revolutions in Early Modern Europe

2020 ◽  
Vol 117 (46) ◽  
pp. 28684-28691
Author(s):  
Mauricio de Jesus Dias Martins ◽  
Nicolas Baumard
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
French Revolution ◽  
Early Modern Period ◽  
English Civil War ◽  
Early Modern Europe ◽  
Capita Gross Domestic Product ◽  
Economic Changes ◽  
Modern Period

The English and French Revolutions represent a turning point in history, marking the beginning of the modern rise of democracy. Recent advances in cultural evolution have put forward the idea that the early modern revolutions may be the product of a long-term psychological shift, from hierarchical and dominance-based interactions to democratic and trust-based relationships. In this study, we tested this hypothesis by analyzing theater plays during the early modern period in England and France. We found an increase in cooperation-related words over time relative to dominance-related words in both countries. Furthermore, we found that the accelerated rise of cooperation-related words preceded both the English Civil War (1642) and the French Revolution (1789). Finally, we found that rising per capita gross domestic product (GDPpc) generally led to an increase in cooperation-related words. These results highlight the likely role of long-term psychological and economic changes in explaining the rise of early modern democracies.

John Locke: The Philosopher as Christian Virtuoso

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Victor Nuovo
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
John Locke ◽  
Early Modern Europe ◽  
Natural Philosopher ◽  
Philosophical Thought ◽  
Christian Philosophy ◽  
Modern Europe ◽  
Empirical Stance

The purpose of this book is to present the philosophical thought of John Locke as the work of a Christian virtuoso. In his role as ‘virtuoso’, an experimental natural philosopher of the sort that flourished in England during the seventeenth century, Locke was a proponent of the so-called ‘new philosophy’, a variety of atomism that emerged in early modern Europe. But he was also a practicing Christian, and he professed confidence that the two vocations were not only compatible but mutually sustaining. Locke aspired, without compromising his empirical stance, to unite the two vocations in a single philosophical endeavor with the aim of producing a system of Christian philosophy. Although the birth of the modern secular outlook did not happen smoothly or without many conflicts of belief, Locke, in his role of Christian virtuoso, endeavored to resolve apparent contradictions. Nuovo draws attention to the often-overlooked complexities and diversity of Locke’s thought, and argues that Locke must now be counted among the creators of early modern systems of philosophy.

The High Point (I): The ‘Court Jews’ (1650–1713)

1997 ◽  
pp. 101-118
Author(s):  
Jonathan Israel
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Strong Sense ◽  
Early Modern Europe ◽  
Close Collaboration ◽  
Jewish Communities ◽  
High Point ◽  
Effective Leaders ◽  
Modern Europe

This chapter assesses the age of the ‘Court Jew’ (1650–1713), which marked the zenith of Jewish influence in early modern Europe. The remarkable role of the Jews in European affairs at that time rested on the solid foundations laid during the Thirty Years War. By 1650, a scattered but socially closely intertwined élite of provisioners and financiers had emerged who were simultaneously agents of states and the effective leaders of Europe's Jewish communities. Sometimes, they showed a strong sense of commitment to one particular government, but this was, in fact, both unusual and untypical. Generally, Jewish court factors, or Hoffaktoren as they were known in Germany, lived outside the states which they served. Not infrequently, they acted for several governments at once. Most typical of all, the close collaboration and interdependence between them, interlocking with the correspondence between kehillot in different countries, made their activity more thoroughly international and specifically Jewish than the banking and contracting of later times. Assuredly, the system centred on Germany, Austria, and Holland, but it ramified far beyond these limits, exerting an appreciable influence also on affairs in Spain, Portugal, the Spanish Netherlands, Denmark, Poland, Hungary, Italy, England, and Ireland.

scholarly journals The Determinants of International Migration in Early Modern Europe: Evidence from the Maritime Sector, c. 1700–1800

2020 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
pp. 143-167
Author(s):  
Alexander Klein ◽  
Jelle van Lottum
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
International Migration ◽  
Early Modern Europe ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Chain Migration ◽  
Migration Flows ◽  
Cross Country ◽  
Modern Europe ◽  
Geographical Characteristics

ABSTRACTThis article offers the first multivariate regression study of international migration in early modern Europe. Using unique eighteenth-century data about maritime workers, we created a data set of migration flows among European countries to examine the role of factors related to geography, population, language, the market, and chain migration in explaining the migration of these workers across countries. We show that among all factors considered in our multivariate analysis, the geographical characteristics of the destination countries, size of port towns, and past migrations are among the most robust and quantitatively the most important factors influencing cross-country migration flows.

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