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1.6 The 'Enlightenment': 'from below'

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法国大革命

墨尔本大学

4.8（307 個評分） | 28K 名學生已註冊

The French Revolution was one of the most important upheavals in world history. This course examines its origins, course and outcomes. This course is designed for you to work through successfully on your own. However you will not be alone on this journey. Use the resources included in the course and take part in the suggested learning activities to get the most out of your learning. To successfully complete this course, it is recommended that you devote at least six hours to every module over the six weeks of the course. In that time you should watch the video lectures, reflect and respond to in-video pause points, and complete the quizzes. As part of the required reading for this course, during each week of this course you will have free access to a chapter of Peter McPhee's textbook, The French Revolution, which is also available for purchase as an e-book.

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4.8（307 個評分）

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AB

Aug 17, 2016

This was one of the best courses that I took at Coursera. The wide ranging knowledge of Professor McPhee is impressive. The course was well organized and well presented.

FF

Mar 30, 2017

Excellent ..I always knew ABOUT the French Revolution - i.e it happened- but I never understood the FULL consequences. Thank you, Professor McPhee..

從本節課中

Week 1 - France in the 1780s

We begin this course with an introduction to the French Revolution. We will examine the social and institutional structures of the Old Regime. We will look at the main occupational groups and the roles of the First and Second estates (the clergy and nobility) in particular. We will also consider the relationship between Paris and the provinces in Old Regime France. Finally, you will be introduced to the Enlightenment and we will reflect on its significance and its possible revolutionary implications.

1.1 An Introduction to the French Revolution14:32

1.2 The Essentials of Eighteenth-Century France14:43

1.3 The First & Second Estates: Clergy and Nobility24:16

1.4 Paris and the Provinces9:16

1.5 The 'Enlightenment': 'from above'18:16

1.6 The 'Enlightenment': 'from below'21:33

教學方

Peter McPhee
Honorary, Melbourne Graduate School of Education

腳本

At the end of my previous lecture I warned of an easy assumption.

That just because the great writers of eighteenth century France,

the great philosophes of the

enlightenment, wrote books that challenged some

of the essential underpinnings of power in that society that,

that somehow meant that was the cause of the French Revolution,

that people read their work.

What I'd like to do in this lecture

is to explore more carefully the enlightenment from below.

What did people read?

I mentioned at the end of the last lecture

that the greatest work of

the enlightenment, the multivolume encyclopedia

was at a price that very few people, a very

thin segment of that society could hope to afford.

Moreover when we look at the works of one of

the greatest of the philosophes Jean-Jacques Rousseau, we find that

what, from our perspective seemed to be his

most radical, revolutionary works, particularly Emile and the

Social Contract, that they were not the books

that were the most sought after that he'd written.

Easily his bigger seller before 1789 was the novel Julie or the New Eloise

which is essentially a romantic novel of sensibilities

a romantic love story, a novel of manners,

rather than his trenchant political and educational critiques.

A warning to us not to make easy assumptions that

radical ideas lead inexorably to revolution.

One of the difficulties we have in asking this question about

the enlightenment from below, is that there are no best seller lists.

But historians certainly have tried in various ways to answer

this crucial question about what people were reading in the 18th century.

More than a century ago, Daniel Mornet for example, investigated the catalogs

of 500 private libraries when people had died and their libraries were cataloged.

Of course a tiny fraction of society who

would have been wealthy enough to have large libraries.

Interesting though that Mornet in those 500

private libraries found one copy of the Social Contract.

Then in the 1960's Francois Furet made an important

distinction between those books which receive full public permission,

that were approved of by the regime and those

which were given tacit permission by the regime censors.

In other words, we don't like what you're

publishing but we'll let it pass this time.

And certainly Furet found that in the second category of

the tacit permissions, a bit of a nod and a wink,

that, certainly, that's where books that

were rather more radical, were being published.

In other words, there was evidence that people were wanting to

read more critical books as the 18th century wore on.

But the biggest breakthrough came from the work of Robert Darnton in the 1980's

work that, continues today.

Because what Darnton, wanted to do

was to investigate whether in fact there were, there was a whole

pirate industry, of producing cheap versions of

enlightenment classics outside France, and shifting them in across the borders.

And what he found is that in Britain, but particularly in Switzerland

and in the city of Neuchâtel in Switzerland,

there was a large scale manufacturing industry, which was effectively

devoted to producing pirate editions, cheap editions of enlightenment classics,

breaking the law by shipping them across the

border into France and selling them off cheaply.

Darnton's argument and I think it was a very powerful one was if we look at the

illegal book trade we are most likely to get

a sense of what people really wanted to read

because people have to break the law to

print those books to ship them into France, they have

to break the law to sell them and people have

to break the law to buy them and read them.

What Darnton found was fascinating.

For a start, he found that something like 25,000 pirate editions, cheap editions

of the Multivolume encyclopedia were produced

in Switzerland and sold in France-

far more than we had previously realized. In other words,

people did want to get their hands on the encyclopedia if possible.

But he also found that, not only were there cheap, pirate

editions being produced in Switzerland and elsewhere and shipped into France.

But there was whole other category of books

which weren't pirate editions, they were just bad books.

They were books that would never have

been allowed to be published in France at all,

and these are some of the titles of the books that Darnton found.

They're essentially works of pornography or pornography that's mixed with politics.

Some of the titles from one list of books that was to be sold off in Lyon,

the second city of France, Venus in the

Cloister, or the Nun in the Nightshirt, with illustrations.

Then some works of the enlightenment by d'Holbach, Systeme Social,

an anti-clerical volume, The Falsity of Miracles, La fille de

joie, The Prostitute with illustrations, a copy of Rousseau's Social Contract.

Then other, pornographic and political works.

But, Darnton's crucial point was this is cheap literature, roughly produced

literature that people are breaking the law to produce, transport, sell and buy

and it gives us a very clear sense of

what people really did want to get their hands on.

And what he found was this mixture

of obscenity, ribald literature on the one hand,

and works of the enlightenment that had been

banned on the other, like the Social Contract.

An explosive mixture.

The authorities called them all philosophical

books, or bad books, the same thing.

What is particularly explosive in this is not just that, yes,

people were getting their hands on cheap editions of the Social Contract,

but that the ribald literature, the obscene mockery of the soft pornography

was targeting in particular the aristocracy, the clergy-

in other words, the pinnacle of society and

indeed, the king and the royal family himself.

Louis XVI, marries Marie-Antoinette, of Austria in 1770

and he is only 15 she's just 14

and it takes them a long time to consummate their marriage at least

to produce an heir. That's of critical importance because under French Royal

law the Salic Law there can only be a king of France, there can't be a queen and it

is essential that Louis and Marie Antoinette produce a male heir.

It takes eight years after their marriage in 1770 for

them to produce a child and she is a little girl.

And it's not until 1781 that they manage finally to produce a male

heir, the little boy on the right of this picture, born in 1781.

By the way, he dies tragically in June, 1789 at the age of just eight years old,

it broke the heart of the royal family.

But in a situation where there needs to be a male heir,

and where it's more than a decade after the marriage of Louis and Marie

Antoinette for a boy to be born, there's an explosive situation where

mockery of the king's sexual incapacity becomes politically explosive.

It's not just mocking the alleged impotence, of

the king, like other members of the court aristocracy.

It's also suggesting that the regime itself is in trouble.

What do you do if you can't produce an heir?

Marie Antoinette becomes a particular target for this type of ribald obscene

mockery because it is argued by many of

these underground authors, that she has effectively emasculated the king,

that she is such a strong woman that she has reduced Louise the 16th to a type of a

emasculation, a type of impotence that in a way seems

to symbolize what's gone wrong with the regime in general.

If you are mocking the royal family, the court, the senior aristocracy, the clergy

for their sexual infidelities,

for their sexual practices there is a real danger

that this is also mocking, the pillars of the system.

Because this afterall is a regime which is based on the

principle of the king being there by the grace of God

and that the privileges of the nobility

and the clergy are essential, to that regime.

It's explosive, once people start turning

their mockery, their barbs, at the personal behavior,

of the most senior members, of the two privileged orders.

Louis is mocked mercilessly for the fact that he much prefers

to go hunting, than to run the, the kings realm.

And it's true that he's a passionate hunter.

Across the 1780's he keeps a diary of the many

many thousands of birds and animals that he kills every year,

often averaging 20 or 30 a day.

Even though the king and his ministry pay special attention to trying to reach

international agreements, to close down these smut factories, as they see them.

in Britain and Switzerland and elsewhere, still the material keeps flooding in.

Here's another catalog from 1784, to the eastern

town of Troyes, ostensibly a sleepy, church dominated provincial

town, and yet this is what one of the book sellers in that town wants to order

to be sold under the counter to his clientele:

Six copies of the Little Suppers at the Hotel de Bouillon,

that's a work of soft pornography,

Little Suppers is a euphemism for sexual orgies,

six copies of an anti-clerical work, the Devil in the baptismal font,

six copies of one of the masterpieces of 18th century pornography, The Burgled Spy,

incidentally written by one of the most, eminent nobles in the kingdom,

ehe Count, de Mirabeau.

Then there are a few political, books:

Collected remonstrances of the reign of Louis XV,

but then there's a book, Louis XV's private life,

12 copies of Louis XV's orgies, etc.,

etc.

Finally, even 1 copy of The Little Suppers, the orgies of the Count

de Vergennes, which is particularly significant

because Vergennes is the Minister for war,

who was given the job of actually closing down all

of these, cheap smut factories in other parts of Europe.

The allegation that comes through again and again from this

literature is that the aristocracy, exemplified by the king himself,

can no longer fight nor make love,

that the foreign policy of the regime has been unsuccessful and

so are the central practices of the most elite members of the aristocracy.

They're reduced to regular sexual infidelities with men and

women of the people, as a way of trying to stimulate their sexual lives.

This mixture of politics and obscenity is explosive.

And Robert Danton's argument is that because it's illegal

because it's bought under the counter, but because people will want to take the risk

to produce, sell, and buy it, this gives us our best gauge of

what it is that is circulating in the streets of cities like Paris.

And it is profoundly unsettling

for the assumptions, for the ideological justifications of this regime.

One of the stories for example, concerns the

Chevalier d'Eon, who's one of the most eminent of

French military men and ambassadors, a hero of France's

participation in North American conflicts earlier in the century,

and the word is put about that actually the Chevalier d'Eon is a woman.

He's seen commonly dressed as a woman.

And there's a whole industry of production

of material about him, again with this implication-

that the best of France's warriors in the 18th

century was actually a woman who dressed as a man,

that's how feeble our aristocracy had become.

And there are countless images of the Chevalier d'Eon dressed as a woman,

fighting duels with male aristocrats.

Louis XVI, in fact orders the Chevalier to get

rid of any misconception by always dressing as a woman,

the implication being that she is a woman, she's not

a man at all, how come she'd fought in the Army?

In fact we know from later life that she's a man.

But the point is that she furnishes a perfect occasion for the writers of this

scurrilous literature to mock the elite, to

mock the aristocracy, even to mock the monarchy.

Because the regime labeled all of this illegal literature, whether

it was works of the enlightenment, works of people like Diderot

or obscene soft pornography,

it's labeled together as bad books, philosophical books-

in a way you could argue the, the regime was digging its own grave.

Great writers like Diderot who produced some

of the great works of the enlightenment are

also willing to dabble in this type of obscene mockery when they need the money.

In other words, elite culture has become profoundly subversive in some ways.

It does seem as though some of this

criticism is widely shared across the social spectrum.

We have the diary of a glass maker, a man named Jacques-Louis Menetra,

and it is suffused with criticism of the elite of his society,

the sort of remarks that are the result of that type of subversive literature.

This is what he has to say about the upper clergy, the bishops, the archbishops,

and so on: These creatures preferred to

see the nation fall into adversity and decrepitude

rather than make the slightest sacrifice.

In other words, to pay taxes.

Thus they were, and always will be, the cause of misfortune

in those nations that they uphold with their ancient Gothic prejudices.

Men of this kind know nothing but to dominate

and wish to rule by their dogmas and fabulous mysteries',

the dismissal of Catholic dogma as mere superstition.

Now, there's no question that in a city like Paris that this type of

literature is widely disseminated and can be

because Paris and other cities are literate communities.

Paris has a primary school for about every 1200 residents.

The vast majority of people in Paris can read and write.

This is an image for example of people in

the backgrounds whose job it is to run through the streets

when there is a new royal decree and put up

handbills or posters so that people can read what's being decreed.

The assumption being that this is a literate place.

Certainly women are less literate.

This is an image of a woman of the people dictating a letter to a public scribe.

And for people like her, the most useful way of

passing on information is through marketplaces, such as this one.

But even so it could be argued that Paris

and other cities are abuzz in the 1770s and 1780s

whether through the written word or through public discussion with ideas

which are certainly disrespectful of the elite of their society.

But what about the countryside?

Don't forget, as I've said, that some 85% of

people in 18th century France live in small, rural communities.

What were they reading?

We know that, about half of men and a quarter of women

were able to sign their marriage acts, and had the rudiments of reading.

What did they want to read?

And they did want to read. This is an image for example of a Colporteur

someone who makes a living by being a traveling

salesman of cheap printed literature going from

village to village across the 18th century

selling printed literature for people to read

aloud at evening gatherings of the family.

We know from French historians the type of literature that they were selling.

So Robert Mandrou for example, has found that

one of the most common forms of literature in

those packs of books that they carried around

the countryside was the Bibliotheque bleue, which is the

little blue library but it was anything but

the enlightenment. These were tales like medieval horror

stories, tales of Gothic horror in the forest, tales

of witches and superstition and spells and so on

but not stories that where infused with concepts from the enlightenment.

Or Genevieve Bolleme who studied the almanachs,

the annual records of practical information

that was regarded as useful by farming families, such as this one.

She found certainly across the 18th century that

such literature was becoming more characterized by secular information,

rather than information about the lives of the saints and all the

rest of it, information like this: warnings given to people about being

careful when you go shopping in town that you don't get pick-pocketed,

that you buy the freshest fish and all the rest of it.

But again, literature that might have

been coming slowly, more secular in orientation,

but had little if anything to do with the enlightenment.

The conclusion of those scholars would very much be that the enlightenment,

whatever form it took was very much an urban phenomenon.

We know however don't we

that in 1789, one of the greatest acts of revolution

in France was the great fear, the great peasant insurrection.

Apparently we can't explain it by, saying that

somehow the sort of people who were here sitting

around the fire in this peasant family were inspired

by having read Rousseau or having read the encyclopedia.

They couldn't have hoped to afford that literature and

certainly the illegal books weren't circulating through the countryside.

They weren't reading the sort of books that urban workers might've

been reading which were mocking the monarchy and mocking the court.

So at their evening gatherings the veilee, when one

household or several households got together, what were they reading?

Not the works of the enlightenment.

And what were they talking about?

And how might we start to explain why people like this household.

Became involved in revolutionary action in 1789 and that's what we're going to be

doing next week when we turn our attention to explaining the outbreak of revolution.

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