The Writing Public: Participatory Knowledge Production in Enlightenment and Revolutionary France

FAIN: FT-259568-18

Elizabeth Bond
Ohio State University (Columbus, OH 43210-1349)

Preparation for publication of a book-length study of the Enlightenment, the French Revolution, and French newspapers from 1770 to 1791.

My book project, 'Experiencing the Enlightenment: an Eighteenth-Century Information Network,' offers new insight into the cardinal question in my field: the link between the Enlightenment and the French Revolution. Drawing upon letters to the editor written by men and women throughout France between 1770 and 1791, I explore how thousands of readers consumed and interpreted the intellectual movements of their day. Representing a wide range of readers, such letters articulated solutions to everyday problems, honing habits of mind focused on knowing the world and changing society. Bringing previously unexamined sources and digital humanities approaches to bear on an enduring question, my work renders a more nuanced understanding of popular cultural responses to intellectual movements.

Associated Products

The Writing Public: Participatory Knowledge Production in Enlightenment and Revolutionary France (Book)
Title: The Writing Public: Participatory Knowledge Production in Enlightenment and Revolutionary France
Author: Elizabeth Andrews Bond
Editor: Emily Andrew
Abstract: Inspired by the reading and writing habits of citizens leading up to the French Revolution, The Writing Public is a compelling addition to the long-running debate about the link between the Enlightenment and the political struggle that followed. Elizabeth Andrews Bond scoured France's local newspapers spanning the two decades prior to the Revolution as well as its first three years, shining a light on the letters to the editor. A form of early social media, these letters constituted a lively and ongoing conversation among readers. Bond takes us beyond the glamorous salons of the intelligentsia into the everyday worlds of the craftsmen, clergy, farmers, and women who composed these letters. As a result, we get a fascinating glimpse into who participated in public discourse, what they most wanted to discuss, and how they shaped a climate of opinion. The Writing Public offers a novel examination of how French citizens used the information press to form norms of civic discourse and shape the experience of revolution. The result is a nuanced analysis of knowledge production during the Enlightenment.
Year: 2021
Primary URL: http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1237757110
Primary URL Description: worldcat permalink to the paperback version of my book
Secondary URL: http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1178869041
Secondary URL Description: worldcat permalink to the open-access electronic version of my book
Access Model: paperback ($19.95) and open access e-book
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Type: Single author monograph
ISBN: 9781501753565
Copy sent to NEH?: Yes

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