The rise of the public in Enlightenment Europe / James Van Horn Melton.

ISBN:

9780511019074

9780511053009

9780511154218

9780511116155

9780521469692

9780521465731

9780511819421

Title:

The rise of the public in Enlightenment Europe / James Van Horn Melton.

Author:

Melton, James Van Horn, 1952-

Personal Author:

Melton, James Van Horn, 1952-

Publication Information:

Cambridge, UK ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2001.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xiv, 284 pages).

Series:

New approaches to European history ; 22

Contents:

What is the public sphere? -- Politics and the rise of "public opinion": the cases of England and France: The peculiarities of the English -- Opacity and transparency: French political culture in the eighteenth century -- Readers, writers, and spectators: Reading publics: transformations of the literary public sphere -- Writing publics: eighteenth-century authorship -- From courts to consumers: theater publics -- Being sociable: Women in public: Enlightenment salons -- Drinking in public: taverns and coffeehouses -- Freemasonry: toward civil society.

Local Note:

eBooks on EBSCOhost

Subject Term:

Enlightenment -- Europe.

Civil society -- Europe -- History -- 18th century.

Printing -- Social aspects -- Europe -- 18th century.

Geographic Term:

Europe -- Social life and customs -- 18th century.

Europe -- Intellectual life -- 18th century.

Europe -- Mœurs et coutumes -- 18e siècle.

Europe -- Vie intellectuelle -- 18e siècle.

Format:

Electronic Resources

Electronic Access:

Click here to view

Publication Date:

2001

Publication Information:

Cambridge, UK ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2001.

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Shelf Number	Material Type	Copy	Shelf Location	Status
940.28 22	1:E-BOOK	1	1:ONLINE	Searching... Unknown

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Summary

James Melton's lucid and accessible study examines the rise of 'the public' in eighteenth-century Europe. A work of comparative synthesis focusing on England, France and the German-speaking territories, this is the first book-length, critical reassessment of what Habermas termed the 'bourgeois public sphere'. During the Enlightenment the Public assumed a new significance as governments came to recognise the power of public opinion in political life; the expansion of print culture created new reading publics and transformed how and what people read; authors and authorship acquired new status, while the growth of commercialized theatres transferred monopoly over the stage from the court to the audience; salons, coffeehouses, taverns and Masonic lodges fostered new practices of sociability. Spanning a variety of disciplines, this important addition to New Approaches in European History will be of great interest to students of social and political history, literary studies, political theory, and the history of women.

Reviews (1)

Choice Review

Over the last 20 years, historians of the Enlightenment have been exploring the "bourgeois public sphere," described in 1962 by Jurgen Habermas. Much of that scholarship has focused on the French Enlightenment. The important contribution of this synthesis is its juxtaposition of recent literatures on France, England, and German-speaking Europe. Melton is particularly good at bringing Prussian and Austrian materials to the center of attention, and he places Habermas's own work in historical context. Specialists in each national area will find few original claims, but they will benefit from the book's comparative nature and appreciate its reasonable take on the Enlightenment public sphere, which Melton presents as full of ambiguity; neither as liberal and rational as Habermas proposed, nor as masculinist as recent scholars have suggested. Undergraduates will grasp the significance of a comparative study ranging from formal and extraparliamentary politics, public opinion, and publishing to authorship, theater, salons, public drinking, and freemasonry. The same territory was covered in broader geographic context by Thomas Munck in The Enlightenment: A Comparative Social History 1721-1794 (CH, Jan'01), but Melton's work is more focused and accessible. General collections and upper-division undergraduates and above. D. G. Troyansky Texas Tech University

Introduction: what is the public sphere?

Part I Politics and the Rise of Public Opinion: The Cases of England and France

1 The peculiarities of the English

2 Opacity and transparency: French political culture in the eighteenth century

Part II Readers, Writers and Spectators

3 Reading publics: transformations of the literary public sphere

4 Eighteenth century authorship

5 From courts to consumers: theatre publics

Part III Being Sociable

6 Enlightenment salons

7 Drinking in public: taverns and coffeehouses

8 Freemasons

Conclusion

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Summary

Summary

Reviews (1)

Choice Review

Table of Contents