Subjects
The Cosmopolitan Ideal in the Age of Revolution and Reaction, 1776–1832
Michael Scrivener
The Enlightenment World
978 1 85196 833 6: 234x156mm: £60.00/$99.00
978 1 85196 543 4
Michael Scrivener examines the new internationalism which emerged in Europe during the Enlightenment. Critical of and distanced from his or her nation and class, the cosmopolitan intellectual formed an identity within a supranational community. A movement that started in elite salons moved to coffee-houses and public bars as the polity expanded to global dimensions.
The cosmopolitan ideal was to collapse, however, in the face of nationalisms which developed during the revolutionary wars in Europe. In his final chapter, Scrivener looks at the ‘second generation’ Romantics who struggled against nationalism at the moment it was triumphing.
This is the first scholarly study of cosmopolitanism to take into account recent feminist and post-colonial critiques of the Enlightenment. Scrivener offers cosmopolitanism as a solution to contemporary struggles to reach a post-national political identity.
Sample pages
- The Cosmopolitan Ideal in the Age of Enlightenment: Introduction
- The Cosmopolitan Ideal in the Age of Enlightenment: Index
Readership
Eighteenth-Century Studies, Philosophy
Contents
Introduction
Chapter 1: Cosmopolitanism Then and Now
Chapter 2: Expanding the Public Sphere
Chapter 3: Women and Justice
Chapter 4: Writing Against Slavery, Race and Empire
Chapter 5: Jewish Questions
Conclusion: Postnational Cosmopolitanism?
Reviews
'A complex, first-person discussion of European cosmopolitan views...two unpublished documents referencing Emma Lyon are noteworthy; examination of lesser-known authors (John Thelwell, David Levi, Lyon) and venues are valuable...recommended'
– CHOICE
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