The Enlightenment: A Comparative Social History 1721-1794 9781474210386

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Preface

This book is about communication and debate in the eighteenth century about the diffusion of information and the spread of more open discussion. Many of the great minds of the enlightenment make an appearance, but, remarkable though their achievements are, they are not the real focus of interest. Instead, I have attempted to explore what the enlightenment may have meant not just for European high society, but also for those broader and only partially educated social groups of whom Voltaire was at times so famously dismissive. The book is written in the belief that changes in attitudes and beliefs during the eighteenth century can be studied at least as fruitfully from the vantage point of more ordinary people - those who read newspapers, frequented coffee-houses or societies, shared in popular entertainments, became interested in current social issues, or simply walked round town with an open mind. It is a commonplace that each generation refashions its own past history, and the enlightenment has had its very full share. In recent years much work has been devoted to the enlightenment 'in national context' - emphasising characteristics which distinguish the cultural, linguistic and intellectual life of one country or region from that of its neighbours. Profitable as this debate has been, it seems to me less than the whole story. One key feature of the eighteenth century, judging in particular from books and periodicals, was a growing interest in the life of nations and cultures other than the reader's own - not only within Europe but also in the Americas and the Far East. Montesquieu's Persian Letters (1721) is a perfect illustration of the impact such open-minded comparison can make at all levels of understanding. His book was the source of two ideas which have fundamentally coloured the interpretation of the enlightenment offered here. One is that, even though we recognise all the variant 'national' forms of enlightenment in Europe, we need to remember that to many contemporaries the fundamentals of reason and enlightening were valid throughout Europe and North America irrespective of national boundaries. The second is that, for all the deep social

The enlightenment

A generation ago, there would have been no particular need for a book on the enlightenment to start with more than a cursory definition of its subject. A number of durable works on the core ideas of the enlightenment had created something of a consensus which, despite differences of approach, seemed unproblematic.' French eighteenth-century writers were seen as both the formative and the dominant influence. Their inspiration had come primarily from Locke, Newton and Pierre Bayle, and their group identity was summarised in the term philosophe - a French word used by contemporaries to denote the liberal thinkers, intellectuals and writers of mid-eighteenthcentury Paris. The key figure always was - and indeed still is - Montesquieu (1689-1755), whose delightful Persian Letters of 1721 set much of the agenda, and whose substantial treatise on the Spirit o f the Laws (1748) remained one of the most frequently cited texts right through the period of the American and French revolutions. Rather less weighty in terms of systematic ideas, though much appreciated by contemporaries for his literary style, wit and satire, was Voltaire (1694-1778), whose network of famous correspondents around Europe was enormous even by the standards of that epistolary age. The trinity of the enlightenment was completed by Rousseau (1712-78), the most eccentric of the three - a perpetual rebel, a selfproclaimed spokesman for truth and sincerity in an age prone to empty 1 A good example is Peter Gay, The Enlightenment: An Interpretation, 2 vols. (New York, 1966-69); but see also notably the works of Hazard, Cassirer, Crocker, Cobban, Berlin, Gay, Hampson and Wade listed in the bibliography at the end of this book. Some of the differences of approach amongst these writers were surveyed by one of them, L.G. Crocker, 'Interpreting the enlightenment: a political approach', J o u ~ ofl the History of Ideas 46 (1985),211-30. This chapter, however, will not attempt a historiographical survey: for that, a good starting mint is found in D. Outram. The Enlightenment (Cambridge, 1995). 3-13 and in R. Porter, ?he Enlightenment ( ~ a s i n ~ s t o k1996), e, both of which also have annotated bibliographies; On the definition of bhilosobhe. see Dumarsais' article from the Encvclobkdie. translated in I. Kramnick, The ~ o r i a b l e~Ali~htenment Reader (Harmondsworth, i99;), 21-2.

Tradition and communication in daily life

The major achievements of eighteenth-century creative and innovative thinkers may seem relatively familiar in the abstract, as ideas and intellectual processes. However, when we turn t o the social context in which these changes occurred, we enter less well-charted territory. H o w directly were specific works of the enlightenment influenced by the environment in which they were created, and what kinds of impression did such works make outside the community of philosophes, writers and scholars who read and discussed each others' works? In what respects, if at all, did the conceptual world of ordinary Parisians or Londoners change in the course of the eighteenth century? What about those who were more distant from city life, or who were not habitual readers? How effective were different forms of communication, and what purposes could they serve? If we were t o ask equivalent questions even about modern society we would have some difficulty finding conclusive evidence. For the eighteenth century, the problems are bound to be much greater. Letters, diaries, fictional literature and other descriptive material can help provide some impression of what went on in the salons, academies and coffee-shops of the better-off. Even what contemporaries sometimes called the 'middling sort' (consisting of professionals, lesser officeholders, merchants, manufacturers and others living comfortably above the bread-line) have left enough clues to keep social historians busy. But skilled and semi-skilled workers, domestic service staff, apprentices and wage-earners - let alone unskilled labourers, most of the rural population of Europe, their households, and above all the women -are much more difficult to approach. Even amongst the increasing number of adults who had somehow learnt to read adequately, writing remained a relatively rare skill, used primarily in formal or exceptional circumstances. In other words, we face some quite fundamental problems of evidence in trying to study the diffusion of the enlightenment outside the charmed circles of the well-to-do. Some of this evidence will be examined in detail in later chapters.

Broadening the horizon: ways and means

Visual, verbal and other forms of communication that d o not depend on the written word are a crucial and very complex part of every human civilisation. In so far as such forms of communication are amenable to historical analysis at all, they appear governed by continuity (or deliberate play on such continuity), gradual adaptation of existing traditions, and reliance on ageold symbolism: indeed their effectiveness as means of communication depends to some extent on long-accepted 'standard' interpretations. Against that relatively static backdrop, we can now identify forms of communication and social interaction which underwent distinctive and sometimes intended change during the eighteenth century. This chapter will look at some of the most obvious of these: the growth in literacy, the diversification of educational strategies, the evolution of new forms and forums of communication, and the kinds of environments that encouraged such change. Most of the issues tackled in this chapter have been debated vigorously by historians in recent years; but because of the difficulties of interpretation, the evidence regarding changing patterns of literacy has proved particularly controversial. The eighteenth century undoubtedly saw a rapid shift in some parts of Europe towards mass reading skills, but there is little agreement on how or why it came about.

Literacy In an age lacking other means of mass communication, access to the printed word was crucial. Such access was determined by a number of obvious factors: ability to read and the incentive in terms of interest, relevance and utility, as well as the more external factors of cost, supply and distribution of printed material. Subsequent chapters will deal with the external market determinants for books and newspapers; here our main concern will be the growth of basic literacy.

Books and readers

As we have already noted, there was more to the enlightenment than a range of innovative ideas presented through printed texts. Nevertheless books, pamphlets and other printed material are bound to remain an essential part of any study of the dissemination and communication processes of the period. Books were themselves often used as a symbol of enlightenment in the paintings and illustrations of the later eighteenth century; appropriately enough, Gienne-~ouisBoullCe's project of 1785 for a new building to house the Royal Library in France is little short of a vast classical temple of learning. This chapter will look a t some of the obvious factors affecting the production, distribution and use of books and pamphlets, and will discuss some of the evidence regarding the expansion of the market in the second half of the century. It will also attempt to identify what sorts of books mattered most, and for whom: we cannot assume that works which we might now regard as particularly important were necessarily seen in the same light when they were first published. It is worth emphasising at the outset that books remained, throughout the eighteenth century and beyond, relatively expensive to acquire. In the absence of bulk manufacturing techniques, costs of production were high. Fonts and paper were expensive; and even if the printing presses of the day tended to be fairly simple pieces of technology, a skilled labour-force was indispensable if satisfactory results were to be achieved. All but the most affluent readers were therefore likely to find that well-made books might be beyond their financial reach; and, conversely, most of the publishing and bookselling sector had to survive primarily on pamphlets or cheap editions in paper covers. But cheap publications are inherently less likely to survive, and any conclusions we can draw from inventories and private book collection catalogues may therefore be skewed. Using other types of evidence to create a profile of the book market is just as problematic: the records of official censorship administrators clearly tell us nothing about the clandestine trade;

T h e press

Well before the eighteenth century, journals, pamphlets and news-sheets had become firmly established as media for the diffusion of ideas, information and commentary. Printing technology was efficient and adaptable, and the capital overheads required to swap between different types of printing (say from book production to news-sheets) was low - particularly so since eighteenth-century newspapers were done in small format, mostly printed in continuous prose without headlines, and thus virtually indistinguishable in appearance from unbound books. As literacy became more common, the market was bound to expand. Although the characteristics of this market could be assessed only by trial and error, the industry was well suited to the task. For a printer or editor to abandon a serial that was poorly supported did not have to result in major losses, and a new venture could be launched virtually overnight. The enormous political potential of the printing press had become clear both in England and in France during the unstable 1640s, and the return to stability in 1660 did not induce collective amnesia - even if efforts by governments all over Europe to restore effective control of the press meant that writers and publishers often had to go to great lengths to cover their tracks to escape serious censure. If the background to single substantial works by recognised intellectuals like Locke or Finelon is difficult to unravel, it is hardly surprising that the history of less illustrious publications raises even more uncertainties - sometimes about the identity and purpose of the author and publisher, and almost certainly about editorial policies, market role, the size of print-runs, means of distribution and circulation, and range and size of readership - to say nothing of feed-back from readers, and (in the case of longer-running serials) any editorial responsiveness there may have been to public opinion generally. For the early modern period, it is difficult to attempt even a definition of the types and genres of publications that we are dealing with. A modern

Reason and the dissolution of certainties

It will be clear from the previous chapters that a number of mechanisms were in place by the second half of the eighteenth century which could help spread information of one kind or another, facilitate discussion and sociability, foster public comment, and to some extent even create expectations of variety and entertainment which had not existed on a comparable scale before. Growing economic prosperity clearly encouraged a rapid increase in demand not just for consumer goods including prints, books and newspapers, but also for the attractions of coffee-houses, debating societies and elementary schooling. We should resist the temptation to treat all of this - or perhaps even any of it - as genuinely innovatory per se; but equally it would be absurd t o deny that, taken overall, the terms of reference and the outreach of debate had changed, often beyond recognition, since the start of the century. That said, what kinds of substantive issues generated most public interest? Were there elements of a common agenda shared by intellectuals, by salon society, by those in positions of political influence, as well as by this wider public? Or, conversely, were there enough contradictions and inconsistencies in contemporary trends t o allow the elite and those in government to ignore demands for change, or at least exploit divisions of opinion? Can we in any case be certain that the issues that we identify are also ones that contemporaries would have placed high on a list of priorities? Much of what went into print may nowadays a t first sight seem ephemeral, gossipy or lighthearted. Yet the eighteenth century is remarkable for the way some core structural and ideological assumptions that it inherited were taken up for reexamination - albeit sometimes superficially, sometimes obliquely, and sometimes with studied cynicism. The next three chapters will address these issues from different angles. In this chapter we shall focus on issues of longstanding significance in public affairs: matters of religious belief, the efficacy and legitimacy of institutions of authority (religious and secular) which

State, nation and individual in the late eighteenth century

Until around 1770, the relationship between state and subject in most of Europe was liable to appear almost unchanging, usually conveying an impression of stability that governments naturally tried to emphasise. As we noted in the last two chapters, specific government reform initiatives in the later eighteenth century turn out on closer examination to be highly contextsensitive and cautious - and much less intrusive (or indeed effective) than we might have assumed at first sight. Social and political relationships continued during this period to be shaped by long-standing traditions of religious belief, deference, dependency and power; yet they could also be affected by a variety of more immediate and sometimes disruptive influences nurtured by economic diversification and (especially in the last decades of the century) by mounting contradictions in social expectations. In the past, such discrepancies had been most obvious during periods of actual social unrest, when the fault lines in early modern society became clearly (if only temporarily) visible. In the last decades of the eighteenth century, however, many key aspects became the object of increasingly open debate in print. In order fully to appreciate what was happening both before and after 1789, historians have in recent years paid more explicit attention to one of the most elusive aspects of their source material: the actual language in which it is couched. Language is subjective and transient, its elements and inflections constantly re-shaped, manipulated or distorted by individual users as well as through social assimilation. The study of the use of language 'discourse analysis' in the current jargon - has always been important to the historian. But the norms of expression current in the eighteenth century can easily deceive, since they seem so deceptively familiar and unproblematic today. Because of the mobility and fluidity of much of eighteenth-century society, the subtle shades of social differentiation reflected in its language, and the remarkable diversity of dialects and idiom (not to mention spelling) at different levels in society, the historian may often feel as if on quicksand.

Conclusion

Rousseau, like many other philosophes, had several brushes with authority, and some hurried evasions of intended arrests. But when in 1776 he was knocked down by a large dog in Paris, he was treated with great civility by the police authorities: the outstanding order for his arrest was not implemented, and he was even offered some financial compensation. His former friend Diderot, whose four-month imprisonment in the Vincennes in 1749 had caused some stir amongst intellectuals in Paris, also gained enough sympathisers amongst those in authority to avoid further punishment. Nevertheless, few of the leading figures of the enlightenment had an easy time. As shown in the careers of writers as different in temperament and inclinations as Paine, Lessing or Mercier, tackling the complacent assumptions of your contemporaries could be both a thankless and a dangerous task. In his Memoirs for Catherine I1 (written around 1773 but characteristically left unpublished), Diderot showed that he was not unscarred by the environment in which he spent all his life: I have worked for more than 30 years on [the Encyclope'die]. Of all the persecutions that one can imagine, there is none that I have not endured. Leave aside all manner of defamatory lampoons. I have suffered loss of honour, of fortune and of freedom. My manuscripts were moved round from one repository to another, concealed now in one place, now in another. More than once attempts have been made to take them from me. I have spent several nights at the window in expectation of a violent order being carried out. I have been on the point of going into exile - and that was the advice of my friends, who saw no safety for me in Paris. The work has been proscribed and my person threatened by various royal edicts and several decrees of the Parlement. We have faced the declared enmity of the court, the magnates, the military (who never hold opinions other than those of the court), the priests, the police, the magistrates, those amongst men of

Select bibliography

References to more specialised literature are provided in the footnotes to each chapter. Studies on Voltaire and the Eighteenth Century, published in Oxford, is abbreviated as StVEC.

General studies (including parts of Europe not covered in separate sections) The Blackwell Companion to the Enlightenment, ed. J.W. Yolton (Oxford, 1991) Dictionnaire europe'en des lumieres, ed. M. Delon (Paris, 1997) R.P. Bartlett et al., eds., Russia and the World of the Eighteenth Century (Columbus, Ohio, 1984) I. Berlin, The Age of Enlightenment (New York, 1962) P. Brockmeier, R. Desnt and J. Voss, eds., Voltaire und Deutschland (Stuttgart, 1979) E. Cassirer, The Philosophy of the Enlightenment (Princeton, 1951) J.C.D. Clark, The Language of Liberty 1660-1 832: Political Discourse and Social Dynamics in the Anglo-American World (Cambridge, 1994) A. Cobban, In Search of Humanity (London, 1960) M. Cranston, Philosophers and Pamphleteers: Political Theorists of the Enlightenment (Oxford, 1986) L.G. Crocker, The Age of Enlightenment (London, 1969) A. Cunningham and R. French, The Medical Enlightenment of the 18th Century (Cambridge, 1990) H. Dippel, Germany and the American Revolution 1770-1 800 (Chapel Hill, 1 977) F. Engel-Janosi, G. Klingenstein and H. Lutz, eds., Formen der europaischen Aufklarung (Munich, 1976)