The Académie and Its Dictionaries under the Old Regime

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael P. Fitzsimmons
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
French Revolution ◽  
The Body ◽  
French Language ◽  
Fourth Edition ◽  
Old Regime ◽  
Louis Xiv ◽  
Berlin Academy ◽  
The French Revolution

Because of criticism of its dictionary, the Académie decided to revise the work rather than begin work on a grammar. It adhered to this pattern throughout the eighteenth century and produced new editions in 1718, 1740, and 1762. The dictionary became the definitive instrument of the French language and enacted changes in it, especially in new spellings introduced in the fourth edition in 1762. Early in the eighteenth century, after he published a pamphlet that criticized Louis XIV, the Académie expelled the abbé de Saint-Pierre, who had wanted the body to assume a larger public policy role. By the latter part of the century, however, its membership included many philosophes. In 1784 Antoine de Rivarol won the prize of the Berlin Academy for his essay on the universality of the French language, heightening the importance of the dictionary, but the fifth edition had not appeared when the French Revolution began in 1789.

scholarly journals Eighteenth Century Price Riots and Public Policy in England

1961 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 277-292 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. B. Rose
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Present Article ◽  
French Revolution ◽  
18Th Century ◽  
Price Control ◽  
Living Standards ◽  
Market Prices ◽  
Fair Market ◽  
The French Revolution

In an earlier article in these pages I examined the origins of the price-control legislation of the Jacobin phase of the French Revolution, suggesting that it ought, most properly, to be regarded not as a revolutionary innovation, but rather as the re-emergence in a new environment of an old and well-established tradition of popular action to fix fair market prices, and thus maintain living standards, by riot and demonstration. At the same time, and in passing, I indicated briefly that a similar tradition existed in 18th-century England, if anything more strongly marked and more widespread than in France itself. The present article will be concerned with a discussion of the significance of this English tradition.

Incriminating Empire

2021 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-57
Author(s):  
Gregory Mole
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
French Revolution ◽  
East India Company ◽  
The Political ◽  
Old Regime ◽  
Revolution Francaise ◽  
The Many ◽  
French Nation ◽  
The French Revolution

Abstract This article explores the political fallout from the 1766 execution of the comte de Lally, who oversaw the failed defense of France's Indian colonies during the Seven Years' War. Accused of treason by administrators of the French East India Company, Lally emerged as a source of controversy in the final decades of the Old Regime. As critics and apologists clashed over the legality of Lally's execution, questions about the nature of his “crime” gave way to a broader debate over the meaning and limits of company sovereignty under France's absolutist state. This conflict remained unresolved into the French Revolution. The Lally affair provides a window into the nebulous relationship that developed between the crown, the company, and the emergent French nation, laying bare the many faces of empire that confronted France during the eighteenth century. Cet article explore les retombées politiques de l'exécution du comte de Lally, l'homme qui commandait les colonies des Indes orientales françaises durant la guerre de Sept Ans. Accusé de trahison par la Compagnie des Indes, Lally représentait une source de controverse à la fin de l'Ancien Régime. Tandis que les critiques et les apologistes contestaient la légalité de son exécution, la question de la culpabilité de Lally incita un débat plus général sur la nature de la souveraineté de la Compagnie sous l'Etat absolutiste. Ce débat restait non résolu durant la Révolution française. L'affaire Lally souligne les liens nébuleux parmi la Compagnie, la monarchie, et la nation française. Elle révèle également les multiples incarnations de l'Empire français au cours du dix-huitième siècle.

William ‘Bill’ Doyle and the Origins of the French Revolution

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tim Blanning
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Recent Work ◽  
French Revolution ◽  
Old Regime ◽  
Late Eighteenth Century ◽  
Late Eighteenth ◽  
Marxist Interpretation ◽  
Breaking Work ◽  
The French Revolution

This chapter discusses Bill Doyle's contribution to the study of the origins of the French Revolution. It shows how his early work delivered a powerful critique of the dominant Marxist interpretation, already under attack from revisionists led by Alfred Cobban. It examines the three editions of his book Origins of the French Revolution, with both continuities and changes identified. Particular importance is assigned to Doyle's ground-breaking work on the part played by venality in eroding the old regime monarchy. A second topic of major importance to which Doyle's researches have contributed a great deal is the role of the Parlements. This is placed in the context of Doyle's critique of the notion of an ‘aristocratic reaction’ in late-eighteenth century France. The chapter concludes with a discussion of his most recent work on aristocracy.

Military Trauma

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan Forrest
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
French Revolution ◽  
Early Years ◽  
The Political ◽  
Old Regime ◽  
Political Situation ◽  
Military Trauma ◽  
Ambivalent Attitude ◽  
The French Revolution

The Old Regime army had been battered by serial defeats during the eighteenth century, and was open to proposals for reform. When 1789 came it was not army reforms that spread despair and trauma but the political situation created in the early years of the French Revolution: the assault on privilege, the ambivalent attitude of the king, the crisis of loyalty which this created for the officers, and the gaping void in the army’s ranks caused by desertion, emigration and the ideology of the Rights of Man. The defeats that followed the declaration of war added to despair, and it was only by resort to further traumatic measures—radicalizing recruitment, promoting officers from the ranks, and amalgamating the line army with the new volunteers, and ultimately the resort to Terror—that the fortunes of the army were turned around.

The Glory and the Sorrow

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy Tackett
Keyword(s):  
French Revolution ◽  
Small Time ◽  
Old Regime ◽  
Ordinary Citizen ◽  
Best Friend ◽  
The World ◽  
Cultural Intermediary ◽  
Insight Into ◽  
The French Revolution ◽  
The Revolution

The book describes the life and the world of a small-time lawyer, Adrien-Joseph Colson, who lived in central Paris from the end of the Old Regime through the first eight years of the French Revolution. It is based on over a thousand letters written by Colson about twice a week to his best friend living in the French province of Berry. By means of this correspondence, and of a variety of other sources, the book examines what it was like for an “ordinary citizen” to live through extraordinary times, and how Colson, in his position as a “social and cultural intermediary,” can provide insight into the life of a whole neighborhood on the central Right Bank, both before and during the Revolution. It explores the day-to-day experience of the Revolution: not only the thrill, the joy, and the enthusiasm, but also the uncertainty, the confusion, the anxiety, the disappointments—often all mixed together. It also throws light on some of the questions long debated by historians concerning the origins, the radicalization, the growth of violence, and the end of that Revolution.

PROTESTANTISM AND PROGRESS IN THE YEAR XII: CHARLES VILLERS'SESSAY ON THE SPIRIT AND INFLUENCE OF LUTHER'S REFORMATION(1804)

2012 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 303-329 ◽  
Author(s):  
MICHAEL PRINTY
Keyword(s):  
French Revolution ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Old Regime ◽  
Social Struggle ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Broad Interest ◽  
The French Revolution

This article examines Charles Villers'sEssay on the Spirit and Influence of Luther's Reformation(1804) in its intellectual and historical context. Exiled from France after 1792, Villers intervened in important French and German debates about the relationship of religion, history, and philosophy. The article shows how he took up a German Protestant discussion on the meaning of the Reformation that had been underway from the 1770s through the end of the century, including efforts by Kantians to seize the mantle of Protestantism for themselves. Villers's essay capitalized on a broad interest in the question of Protestantism and its meaning for modern freedom around 1800. Revisiting the formation of the narrative of Protestantism and progress reveals that it was not a logical progression from Protestant theology or religion but rather part of a specific ideological and social struggle in the wake of the French Revolution and the collapse of the Old Regime.

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