Call for Papers: "Les Mirabeau: Eighteenth-Century French Society, Political Economy and Cosmopolitan Culture"
For well over a century, the Mirabeau family has
fascinated historians of
the Old Regime and of the French Revolution. In the person of Victor
Riqueti, author of L'Ami des hommes (1756) and physiocratic collaborator
with François Quesnay, this clan furnished a pioneering figure in the
political economy of the French Enlightenment. More generally, debates over
agriculture, demography, luxury, commerce and taxation triggered by his
abundant literary production helped to define the French Enlightenment
during the second half of the eighteenth century. During the Revolution,
the famed orator Honoré Gabriel advanced and eventually come to symbolize
the profound national unity that helped to push the Revolution forward at
key moments; at the same time, relations within his own family--between an
authoritarian father who persecuted his son with a lettre de cachet and a
brother who emigrated and fought against the Revolution--point to
significant fissures within French elites and, therefore, of the meaning of
the Revolutionary project itself.
The background of the Mirabeaus was traditional: military nobles with
landed wealth in Provence, they were significant participants in local
politics. As representants of their social group, they participated in many
of the conflicts between provinces and capital that were a permanent
feature of Old Regime France's absolutist politics and culture. At the same
time, the Mirabeau family maintained connections at Versailles and, later,
in the "beau monde" of Paris--testament to another geographic displacement
that shaped the politics of Enlightenment and reform in eighteenth-century
France. Finally, the Mirabeau family developed connections outside the
mainland France, both in Europe and in the colonial world, whose importance
to the social, economic and political world of Old Regime France historians
have come to better appreciate in the last decade. In the juxtaposition of
the provincial, national and cosmopolitan in the careers and writing of the
Mirabeau family we glimpse the Enlightenment in and above national context.
In many important senses, the history of the Mirabeau family captures the
essence of what the Enlightenment, Reform and Revolution itself were.
A conference on the Mirabeau family provides an opportunity to take stock
of developments over the past two decades or so in the historiography of
Old Regime France, The French Revolution as well as in the European
Enlightenment. We invite proposals bearing on the Mirabeau family and the
many contexts outlined above, from a broad range of methodologies and
themes, such as social history, the history of elites, the history of
political and economic ideas; and we expect that these classic perspectives
for investigating the Mirabeau family and their context will be
considerably enriched by studies in the history of science, the history of
sociability and the history of administration and governance (e.g. of the
colonies, "parlements", and of the royal state).
The conference is to be held in Paris, France on April 9-11, 2015 with
sponsorship of the Institut National d'Etudes Démographiques, The
University of Chicago, the University of Paris 8 and the Bibliothèque
Nationale de France.
Please send a paper proposal in English or in French of 300 to 500 words
before June 30, 2014 to the following address :
colloque-mirabeau@liste.ined.fr . Proposals for full sessions or
round-tables are welcome, please contact the organizers at the above
address for further information.
Scientific commitee :
Manuela ALBERTONE (Università di Torino) ; Loïc CHARLES (Université de
Paris 8) ; Paul CHENEY (University of Chicago) ; Joël FELIX (University of
Reading); Bela KAPOSSY (Université de Lausanne) ; Michael KWASS (John
Hopkins University); Catherine LARRERE (University de Paris I -
Panthéon-Sorbonne); Philippe MINARD (EHESS - Université de Paris 8) ;
Arnaud ORAIN (Université de Paris 8) ; Pierre SERNA (University de Paris I
- Panthéon-Sorbonne) ; Michael SONENSCHER (Cambridge University) ; Philippe
STEINER (Université Paris IV - Paris Sorbonne ; Christine THERE (INED).
Keynote speaker:
Antoine Lilti (EHESS)
The organizers
colloque-mirabeau@liste.ined.fr
Loïc CHARLES (Université de Paris 8)
Paul CHENEY (University of Chicago)
Christine THERE (INED)
the Old Regime and of the French Revolution. In the person of Victor
Riqueti, author of L'Ami des hommes (1756) and physiocratic collaborator
with François Quesnay, this clan furnished a pioneering figure in the
political economy of the French Enlightenment. More generally, debates over
agriculture, demography, luxury, commerce and taxation triggered by his
abundant literary production helped to define the French Enlightenment
during the second half of the eighteenth century. During the Revolution,
the famed orator Honoré Gabriel advanced and eventually come to symbolize
the profound national unity that helped to push the Revolution forward at
key moments; at the same time, relations within his own family--between an
authoritarian father who persecuted his son with a lettre de cachet and a
brother who emigrated and fought against the Revolution--point to
significant fissures within French elites and, therefore, of the meaning of
the Revolutionary project itself.
The background of the Mirabeaus was traditional: military nobles with
landed wealth in Provence, they were significant participants in local
politics. As representants of their social group, they participated in many
of the conflicts between provinces and capital that were a permanent
feature of Old Regime France's absolutist politics and culture. At the same
time, the Mirabeau family maintained connections at Versailles and, later,
in the "beau monde" of Paris--testament to another geographic displacement
that shaped the politics of Enlightenment and reform in eighteenth-century
France. Finally, the Mirabeau family developed connections outside the
mainland France, both in Europe and in the colonial world, whose importance
to the social, economic and political world of Old Regime France historians
have come to better appreciate in the last decade. In the juxtaposition of
the provincial, national and cosmopolitan in the careers and writing of the
Mirabeau family we glimpse the Enlightenment in and above national context.
In many important senses, the history of the Mirabeau family captures the
essence of what the Enlightenment, Reform and Revolution itself were.
A conference on the Mirabeau family provides an opportunity to take stock
of developments over the past two decades or so in the historiography of
Old Regime France, The French Revolution as well as in the European
Enlightenment. We invite proposals bearing on the Mirabeau family and the
many contexts outlined above, from a broad range of methodologies and
themes, such as social history, the history of elites, the history of
political and economic ideas; and we expect that these classic perspectives
for investigating the Mirabeau family and their context will be
considerably enriched by studies in the history of science, the history of
sociability and the history of administration and governance (e.g. of the
colonies, "parlements", and of the royal state).
The conference is to be held in Paris, France on April 9-11, 2015 with
sponsorship of the Institut National d'Etudes Démographiques, The
University of Chicago, the University of Paris 8 and the Bibliothèque
Nationale de France.
Please send a paper proposal in English or in French of 300 to 500 words
before June 30, 2014 to the following address :
colloque-mirabeau@liste.ined.fr . Proposals for full sessions or
round-tables are welcome, please contact the organizers at the above
address for further information.
Scientific commitee :
Manuela ALBERTONE (Università di Torino) ; Loïc CHARLES (Université de
Paris 8) ; Paul CHENEY (University of Chicago) ; Joël FELIX (University of
Reading); Bela KAPOSSY (Université de Lausanne) ; Michael KWASS (John
Hopkins University); Catherine LARRERE (University de Paris I -
Panthéon-Sorbonne); Philippe MINARD (EHESS - Université de Paris 8) ;
Arnaud ORAIN (Université de Paris 8) ; Pierre SERNA (University de Paris I
- Panthéon-Sorbonne) ; Michael SONENSCHER (Cambridge University) ; Philippe
STEINER (Université Paris IV - Paris Sorbonne ; Christine THERE (INED).
Keynote speaker:
Antoine Lilti (EHESS)
The organizers
colloque-mirabeau@liste.ined.fr
Loïc CHARLES (Université de Paris 8)
Paul CHENEY (University of Chicago)
Christine THERE (INED)