No More Learning

It sold well enough to have three subsequent editions and an English transla- tion: [Franc? ois-Ignace d'Espiard de la Borde], L'Esprit des nations, 2 vols. (The Hague, 1752 and 1753; Geneva, 1753); d'Espiard, The Spirit of the Na- tions (London, 1753). D'Espiard's continuing obscurity was such that in 1769 Jean-Louis Castilhon plagiarized large portions of the book for his own Con- side? rations sur les causes physiques et morales de la diversite? du ge? nie des moeurs, et du gouvernement des nations, 2 vols. (Bouillon, 1769). In addition, Oliver Goldsmith plagiarized several long sections of the English translation in writing his "The Effects Which Climates Have upon Men, and Other Ani- mals. " See Michael Griffin, "Oliver Goldsmith and Franc? ois-Ignace Espiard de la Borde: An Instance of Plagiarism," Review of English Studies, L (1999), 59-64.
As Robert Shackleton noted in Montesquieu: A Critical Biography (Oxford, 1961), 308-9, Montesquieu almost certainly derived part of his theory of cli- mate from d'Espiard. If anything, Shackleton probably underestimates the importance of d'Espiard's work for Montesquieu.
D'Espiard, Essais, II, bk. IV, 41.
Montesquieu, The Spirit of the Laws, Anne M. Cohler, Basia Carolyn Miller, and Harold Samuel Stone, trans. and ed. (Cambridge, 1989), e. g. 310 (section entitled "How careful one must be not to change the general spirit of a na- tion"); Voltaire, Essai sur l'histoire ge? ne? rale et sur les moeurs et l'esprit des na- tions (Paris, 1756).
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Conside? rations sur le gouvernement de Pologne et sur sa re? formation projete? e (1772), in Oeuvres comple`tes, 4 vols. (Paris, 1964), III, 960-1.
See Martin Papenheim, Erinnerung und Unsterblichkeit: Semantische Studien zum Todenkult in Frankreich (1715-1794) (Stuttgart, 1992), 156-200; Jean- Claude Bonnet, Naissance du Panthe? on: Essai sur le culte des grands hommes (Paris, 1998).
Voltaire to Charles Bordes, March 23, 1765, in Les oeuvres comple`tes de Vol- taire, Theodore Besterman, ed. , 134 vols. (Oxford, 1970-76), CXII, 477. On the plays, see most recently Anne Boe? s, La lanterne magique de l'histoire: Essai sur le the? a^tre historique en France de 1750 a` 1789 (Oxford, 1982). It is also worth noting that the Academy of Inscriptions and Belles-Lettres, following
Notes to Pages 10-11
39.
40. 41.
42.
43.
44.
its reorganization in 1701, concerned itself almost entirely with French his- tory and literature, and helped lead a rebirth of scholarly interest in these subjects.
45. See Roger Bickart, Les parlements et la notion de souverainete? nationale au XVIIIe sie`cle (Paris, 1932), and Chapter 2, below.
46. Rene? Louis de Voyer de Paulmy d'Argenson, Journal et me? moires, Rathe? ry, ed. , 8 vols. (Paris, 1859), VIII, 315 (June 26, 1754); history work cited in Elisabeth Fehrenbach, "Nation," in Rolf Reichardt and Eberhard Schmitt, eds. , Hand- buch politisch-sozialer Grundbegriffe in Frankreich, 1680-1820, vol. VII (Mu- nich, 1986), 75-107, at 98.
47. Jacques Godard to Cortot, Nov. 7, 1788, in Archives De? partementales de la Co^te d'Or, E 642.
48. See Jean Locquin, La peinture d'histoire en France de 1747 a` 1785 (Paris, 1912); Jacques Silvestre de Sacy, Le comte d'Angiviller, dernier directeur ge? ne? ral des batiments du roi (Paris, 1953); Francis H. Dowley, "D'Angiviller's Grands Hommes and the Significant Moment," The Art Bulletin, XXXIX (1957), 259- 77; Andrew McClellan, "D'Angiviller's 'Great Men' of France and the Politics of the Parlements. " Art History, 13/2 (1990), 177-92; and Chapter 4, below. Sergent's engraving was almost certainly inspired by West's famous rendi- tion of the death of Montcalm's opponent, General Wolfe, in the same 1759
battle. Notes to Pages 11-12
49. See Dziembowski, Un nouveau patriotisme, and Chapter 3, below.
50. [Manson], Examen impartial du Sie? ge de Calais (Calais, 1765), pp. 8-9.
51. Bedos, Le ne? gotiant patriote (Amsterdam and Paris, 1784); Maupin, Projet
patriotique sur la vigne, les vins rouges, les vins blancs et les cidres (Paris, 1787); Philippe-Nicolas Pia, Avis patriotique concernant les personnes suffoque? es par la vapeur de charbon qui paroissent mortes et qui ne l'e? tant pas peuvent recevoir des secours pour e^tre rappelle? es a` la vie (Paris, 1776).
52. De Forges, Des ve? ritables inte? re^ts de la patrie (Rotterdam, 1764), 20.
53. French National Library Catalogue, available at catalogue. bnf. fr. The follow- ing list, drawn from the ARTFL database (humanities. uchicago. edu/ARTFL),
gives the frequency, per 100,000 words:
Date
1690-1709 1710-1729 1730-1749 1750-1769 1770-1789
Nation Patrie
4. 7 4. 8 10. 0 18. 5 20. 8 12. 0 22. 2 13. 2 22. 5 18. 8
In addition, the use of the neologism "national" went from 0 in 1710-29, to 1. 0 per 100,000 in 1730-49, to 1. 3 in 1750-69, and 3. 8 in 1770-89. The neolo-
Notes to Pages 11-12 225
? 226
Notes to Pages 12-17
? 54. 55.
56. 57.
58. 59. 60.
61.
Notes to Pages 12-17
62. 63.
64.
65.
gisms "patriote" and "patriotique," often used interchangeably, went from 0 in 1730-49 to 0. 4 in 1750-69, and 1. 5 in 1770-89.
Declaration of the Rights of Man, art. III; cited in Albert Mathiez, L'origine des cultes re? volutionnaires, 1789-92 (Paris, 1904), 31.
Cited in Josephine Grieder, Anglomania in France, 1740-1789: Fact, Fiction and Political Discourse (Geneva, 1985), 140.
Discours sur le patriotisme (n. p. , 1788), 82.
Cited in C. Berlet, Les tendances unitaires et provincialistes en France a` la fin du XVIIIe sie`cle (Nancy, 1913), 151; Emmanuel-Joseph Sieye`s, Instructions envoye? es par M. le duc d'Orle? ans pour les personnes e? trange`res de sa procuration aux assemble? es de bailliages relatives aux Etats-ge? ne? raux (Paris, 1789), 44. Cited in Fehrenbach, "Nation," 98.
Re? impression de l'ancien Moniteur, XVIII, 351.
See J. H. Elliott, "A Europe of Composite Monarchies," Past and Present, 137 (1992), 48-71.
Henri Gre? goire, Essai sur la re? ge? ne? ration physique, morale et politique des Juifs, ed. Rita-Hermon-Belot (Paris, 1989, orig. 1788), 141; Gre? goire, Rapport sur la ne? cessite? et les moyens d'ane? antir le patois et d'universaliser l'usage de la langue franc? aise (Paris, Year II [1794]), 10. On the language question, see Chapter 6, below.
See Labarrie`re, Julia, and Baczko.
See notably Weber, 8-12, 67-114. On the influence of French policies beyond France, see Hobsbawm, 44; Federico Chabod, L'idea di nazione (Bari, 1961), 55-58; Lorenzo Renzi, La politica linguistica della rivoluzione francese (Naples, 1981), 171.
It would require reading against the grain in archival sources largely com- piled by state officials, to glean remarks indicative of sentiments towards the nation and the patrie. A pioneering work of this sort is Arlette Farge, Dire et mal dire: L'opinion publique au dix-huitie`me sie`cle (Paris, 1992). A very differ- ent attempt to gauge widespread attitudes through an analysis of a particular text, the Cahiers de dole? ances of 1789, may be found in Gilbert Shapiro and John Markoff, Revolutionary Demands: A Content Analysis of the Cahiers de dole? ances of 1789 (Stanford, 1998).
Eighteenth-century Gallicanism remains a subject in search of a historian. On the doctrine itself, see most recently Jotham Parsons, "Church and Magis- trate in Early Modern France: Politics, Ideology and the Gallician Liberties, 1550-1615," Ph. D. diss. , Johns Hopkins University (1998). On the eigh- teenth-century theological controversies see Catherine Maire, De la cause de Dieu a` la cause de la Nation: Le janse? nisme au XVIIIe` sie`cle (Paris, 1998), and esp. Dale Van Kley, The Religious Origins of the French Revolution: From Cal- vin to the Civil Constitution, 1560-1791 (New Haven, 1996).
Notes to Pages 18-20 227
? 66. Nora, in Les lieux de me? moire, pt. III, I, 29. Another influential work in this tradition is Beaune, Naissance. For criticism of Nora on this point see Bell, "Paris Blues," and Englund, "The Ghost of Nation Past. "
67. See notably Greenfeld, Nationalism, 89-188, Guiomar, La nation, and Englund, "The Ghost of Nation Past. "
68. Liah Greenfeld comes close to treating it in this matter (esp. see 1-26). See the counterarguments made by Maurizio Viroli, For Love of Country: An Essay on Patriotism and Nationalism (Oxford, 1995).
69. On "national sovereignty," see esp. J. K. Wright, "National sovereignty and the National Will: The Political Program of the Declaration of Rights," in Dale Van Kley, ed. , The French Idea of Freedom: The Declaration of the Rights of Man (Stanford, 1994), 199-233. Here, I am departing from the linguistic ap- proach of Keith Baker in Inventing the French Revolution, itself grounded in the work of Quentin Skinner and J. G. A. Pocock, and also of Michel Foucault. Briefly, I would contend that it is possible and necessary to elucidate a broader social and cultural context to which the changing meanings of words ultimately relate, even if they do not reflect it in any simple, causal sense.
70. Foreign Minister Vergennes, cited in J. -F. Labourdette, Vergennes: Ministre principal de Louis XVI (Paris, 1990), 207; Lettre d'un jeune homme a` son ami, sur les Franc? ais et les Anglais, relativement a` la frivolite? reproche?
e aux uns, & la philosophie attribue? e aux autres, ou Essai d'un paralelle [sic] a` faire entre ces deux nations (Amsterdam, 1779), 50; Adrien Lamourette, cited in Dupuy, Gene`se, 131; Club of Auch to Gre? goire, in Augustin Gazier, ed. , Lettres a` Gre? goire sur les patois de France (Paris, 1880), 94; Commentary on decree of Dec. 22, 1789, cited in Brunot, Histoire, IX, pt. 2, 667. Notes to Pages 18-20
71. Lynn Hunt, The Family Romance of the French Revolution (Berkeley, 1992).
72. See notably Joan Landes, Women and the Public Sphere in the Age of the French Revolution (Ithaca, 1988); Hunt, Family Romance; Sarah Maza, "Response to Daniel Gordon and David Bell," French Historical Studies, XVII/3 (1992),
935-53.
73. W. V. Quine, Quiddities (Cambridge, Mass. , 1987), 90.
74. My thinking here is much indebted to discussions with Dr. Dror Wahrman
and his work-in-progress, tentatively titled A Cultural History of the Modern
Self. See also the works cited in n. 17 above.
75. Kathleen Wilson, "The Island Race: Captain Cook, Protestant Evangelicalism
and the Construction of English National Identity, 1760-1800," in Tony Clay- don and Ian McBride, Protestantism and National Identity: Britain and Ire- land, c. 1650-c. 1850 (Cambridge, 1999), 265-90, at 268. For some interesting criticisms of Colley, see the other essays in this book. For criticism of Weber, see Ford, Creating the Nation, and Lehning, Peasant and French.
76. I have not paid commensurate attention to the name France itself, a name so
228
Notes to Pages 20-22
? 77.
78.
79.
80.
Notes to Pages 20-22
81. 82.
1. 2.
widely used, in so many differing contexts and with so many different mean- ings, that I have found tracing patterns of usage not to be a useful exercise. Still for an interesting attempt, see Dupront, "Du sentiment national. "
On the origins of "patriotism" and "nationalism," see Hyslop, French Na- tionalism in 1789, 22, and Pierre Nora, "Nation," in Franc? ois Furet and Mona Ozouf, eds. , Dictionnaire critique de la Re? volution franc? aise (Paris, 1988), 801-4.
In my understanding of patriotism and nationalism I rely above all on Gell- ner, Nations and Nationalism; Anderson, Imagined Communities; and Viroli, For Love of Country. For reasons that will become clear in Chapter 1, I am less convinced by the description of nationalism as an ideology by Elie Kedourie, in Nationalism (New York, 1960), or Greenfeld, in Nationalism.
E. g. those self-styled "national republicans," MM. Pasqua and Cheve`nement, who have recently and preposterously suggested that additional protection for the moribund Breton and Occitan languages will mean the Balkanization of France. Quoted in The Economist, July 3, 1999, 40.
See notably Suzanne Citron, Le mythe nationale: L'histoire de France en ques- tion (Paris, 1987), and the works of Robert Lafont on Occitania, and, for the neoliberal perspective (following on the work of Franc? ois Furet), Greenfeld, 3-26 and 89-188.
Mona Ozouf, La fe^te re? volutionnaire, 1789-1799 (Paris, 1976), 469.
Two recent, important works which have raised a cheer and a half, respec- tively, for nationalism and Jacobinism, are David Miller, On Nationality (Ox- ford, 1995), and Patrice Higonnet, Goodness beyond Virtue: Jacobins during the French Revolution (Cambridge, Mass. , 1998).
1. The National and the Sacred
"How sweet and fitting it is to die for one's country. " Horace, Odes, III, ii, 13. See esp. Carlton Hayes, "Nationalism as a Religion," in Essays on Nationalism (New York, 1928), 93-125; Hayes, Nationalism: A Religion (New York, 1960); Llobera, The God of Modernity (for publishing data, see Intro. , n. 31); Hans Kohn, The Idea of Nationalism (New York, 1944); George L. Mosse, The Na- tionalization of the Masses: Political Symbolism and Mass Movements in Ger- many from the Napoleonic Wars through the Third Reich (New York, 1975); Conor Cruise O'Brien, "Nationalism and the French Revolution," in Geoffrey Best, ed. , The Permanent Revolution: The French Revolution and Its Legacy, 1789-1989 (Chicago and London, 1988), 17-48; O'Brien, God Land: Re- flections on Religion and Nationalism (Cambridge, Mass. , 1993); Anderson, Imagined Communities (see Intro. , n. 13); Gorski, "The Mosaic Moment" (see Intro. , n. 21); Adam Zamoyski, Holy Madness: Romantics, Patriots, and Revo-
lutionaries, 1776-1871 (New York, 1999); Mary Anne Perkins, Word and Na- tion, 1770-1850: Religious and Metaphysical Language in European National Consciousness (London, 1999), esp. 262-76 ("The New Religion of National- ism").
3. Liah Greenfeld, "The Modern Religion? " Critical Review, X/2 (1996), 169-91, quote from 169.
4. Jules Michelet, Journal, Paul Viallaneix, ed. , 4 vols. (Paris, 1959), I, 83 (August 7, 1831). Quoted in O'Brien's thoughtful "Nationalism," 17.
5. Anderson, Imagined Communities, 19.
6. Ibid. Anderson quickly adds that nationalism did not simply "supersede" reli-
gion.
7. Again, see Greenfeld, Nationalism (see Intro. , n. 21), 89-188; Guiomar, La na-
tion (see Intro. , n. 18); Englund, "The Ghost of Nation Past" (see Intro. , n. 35);
Bickart, Les parlements (see Intro. , n. 45).
8. Henri de Boulainvilliers, Essais sur la noblesse de France (Amsterdam, 1732).
9. See again Greenfeld, Nationalism, 89-188; Guiomar, La nation; Englund,
"The Ghost of Nation Past. "
10. See William Farr Church, Constitutional Thought in Sixteenth-Century France
(Cambridge, Mass. , 1941); Franc? ois Hotman, Francogallia, ed. Ralph Giesey
(Cambridge, 1972).
Notes to Pages 22-25
11. Boulainvilliers did use the phrase "natural rights. " See the cogent discussion in Robert Morrissey, L'empereur a` la barbe fleurie: Charlemagne dans la mythologie et l'histoire de France (Paris, 1997), 270-80.
12. I have developed this point in reference to Louis-Adrien Le Paige in David A. Bell, Lawyers and Citizens: The Making of a Political Elite in Old Regime France (New York, 1994), 117-19. For a recent survey of the ongoing debate over these matters, see Michael Sonenscher, "Enlightenment and Revolution," The Journal of Modern History, LXX/2 (1998), 371-83.
13. On semantic changes in general in France, see Rolf Reichardt et al. 's indis- pensable Handbuch politisch-sozialer Grundbegriffe (see Intro. , n. 46), which is in turn indebted to Otto Brunner, Werner Conze, and Reinhart Koselleck, eds. , Geschichtliche Grundbegriffe: Historisches Lexikon zur politisch-sozialen Sprache in Deutschland (Stuttgart, 1972). In his general introduction (I, 39- 148), Reichardt suggests (p. 40) that there was a general shift of "leading rep- resentational and behavior-directing fundamental concepts" ("vorstellungs- und handlungssteuernden Grundbegriffe") between 1680 and 1820. But he does not attempt to analyze any particular group of concepts. His explana- tory framework (70-78) draws on Habermas in a manner similar to my sec- tion below, "The Realm of Material Organization. "
14. Lucien Febvre, "Civilisation: Evolution of a Word and a Group of Ideas," in A New Kind of History: From the Writings of Febvre, Peter Burke, ed. , K. Folca,
Notes to Pages 22-25 229
? 230
Notes to Pages 25-26
? 15.
16.
17.
trans. (New York, 1973), 219-57; also Joachim Moras, Ursprung und Ent- wicklung des Begriffs der Zivilisation in Frankreich (1756-1830), Hamburger Studien zu Volkstum und Kultur der Romanen, VI (Hamburg, 1930); Pierre Michel, "Barbarie, civilisation, vandalisme," in Reichardt and Schmitt, Hand- buch, VIII (1988), 1-43; Anthony Pagden, "The 'Defence of Civilisation' in Eighteenth-Century Social Theory," History of the Human Sciences, I/1 (1988), 33-45.
Keith Michael Baker, "Enlightenment and the Institution of Society: Notes for a Conceptual History," in Willem Melching and Wyger Velema, eds. , Main Trends in Cultural History (Amsterdam, 1992), 95-120, quote from 119; Dan- iel Gordon, Citizens without Sovereignty: Equality and Sociability in French Thought, 1670-1789 (Princeton, 1994), esp. 43-85.
The most useful starting points remain Mona Ozouf, "L'opinion publique," in Baker, ed. , The Political Culture of the Old Regime, 419-34 (see Intro. , n. 32), and Baker, Inventing the French Revolution (see Intro. , n. 17), 167-99.
On moeurs, see Roberto Romani, "All Montesquieu's Sons: The Place of esprit ge? ne? ral, caracte`re national, and moeurs in French Political Philosophy, 1748- 1789," in Studies on Voltaire and the Eighteenth Century, 362 (1998):189-235; Arthur M. Wilson, "The Concept of moeurs in Diderot's Social and Political Thought," in W. H. Barber et al. , eds. , The Age of the Enlightenment: Studies Presented to Theodore Besterman (Edinburgh, 1967), 188-99. On peuple, see Ge? rard Fritz, L'ide? e de peuple en France du XVIIe` au XIXe` sie`cle (Strasbourg, 1988); Henri Coulet, ed. , Images du peuple au XVIIIe` sie`cle (Paris, 1973). On police, see Gordon, 9-24. All in all, eighteenth-century French writers showed such a talent for such neologisms, redefinitions, and quarrels over words that industrious German disciples of Reinhart Koselleck have seen fit to create, in the Handbuch politisch-sozialer Grundbegriffe, a virtual encyclopedia on the subject.
On commerce, see Albert O. Hirschman, The Passions and the Interests: Politi- cal Arguments for Capitalism before Its Triumph (Princeton, 1976); J. G. A. Pocock, Virtue, Commerce and History (Cambridge, 1985). On politeness, see especially Roger Chartier, "From Texts to Manners, A Concept and Its Books: Civilite? between Aristocratic Distinction and Popular Appropriation," in The Cultural Uses of Print in Early Modern France (Princeton, 1987), 71-109. On citizenship, see Peter Sahlins, "Fictions of a Catholic France" (see Intro. , n. 33); and Sahlins, "The Eighteenth-Century Revolution of Citizenship," unpub- lished paper presented to the conference "Migration Controls in Nineteenth Century Europe and the United States," Universite? de Paris (June 1999), which summarizes some theses of his forthcoming book on the subject.
On this point, I am endebted to Craig Calhoun, "Nationalism and Difference: The Politics of Identity Writ Large," in his Critical Social Theory: Culture, His- tory and the Challenge of Difference (Oxford, 1995), 231-82, esp. 233.
Notes to Pages 25-26
18.
19.
Notes to Pages 26-28 231
? 20. Thus Baker and Gordon identify "society" as fundamental (e. g. Gordon, Citi- zens without Sovereignty, 7), while Greenfeld, by contrast, calls the idea of the nation the "constitutive element of modernity" (Greenfeld, Nationalism, 18). Gordon argues that "nation" has a more specifically political, statist reso- nance than "society. " Without attempting to go into this point in detail, I would suggest that such resonances are historically variable and that in some historical situations "nation" may well seem a more inclusive, neutral term than "society," which itself can carry resonances of hierarchy and exclusion. See on this last point Linda Colley, "Whose Nation? Class and National Con- sciousness in Britain, 1750-1830," Past and Present, 113 (1986), 96-117, and Sarah Maza, "Luxury, Morality and Social Change: Why There Was No Mid- dle-Class Consciousness in Prerevolutionary France," Journal of Modern His- tory, LXIX/2 (1997), 199-229. It is precisely to avoid assigning priority to any particular term that I resort here to terms such as "community," "human co- existence," and "human relations. "
21. Particularly Marcel Gauchet, The Disenchantment of the World: A Political History of Religion, trans. Oscar Burge (Princeton, 1998), Reinhart Koselleck, Kritik und Krise: Eine Studie zur Pathogenese der bu? rgerlichen Welt (Frankfurt, 1959, repr. 1979); and Ju? rgen Habermas, The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere: An Inquiry into a Category of Bourgeois Society, Thomas Burger and Frederick Lawrence, trans. (Cambridge, Mass. , 1989). I have also bene- fited greatly from J. G. A. Pocock's article "Conservative Enlightenment and Democratic Revolution: The American and French Cases in British Perspec- tive," Government and Opposition, XXIV (1989), 81-106. Notes to Pages 26-28
22. This idea of distinct if connected realms is indebted to Daniel Bell's discus- sion of the "disjunction of realms" in The Cultural Contradictions of Capital- ism (New York, 1976), 3-30.
23. Paul Hazard, La crise de la conscience europe? enne, 1680-1715 (Paris, 1961). See especially the preface, vii-xi, in which Hazard gives full rein to his fondness for martial metaphors.
24. Gauchet, Disenchantment. While Gauchet obviously borrows the term "dis- enchantment" from Weber, he uses it to refer not to the progress of reason, but to the liberation of mankind from divine "determination. "
25.