National Character and Public Spirit in Britain and France, 1750–1914

This book offers an analysis of the concept of 'national character' in the intellectual histories of Britain and France.

Roberto Romani (Author)

9780521810005, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 20 December 2001

360 pages
23.7 x 15.9 x 2.8 cm, 0.694 kg

'… stirring and critical account … Romani's wide-ranging, sufficiently argued, comprehensive study would be of respective interest to every historian of economic thought aspiring to a different reading of economic ideas against their intellectual and cultural context.' History of Economic Ideas

In a work of unusual ambition and rigorous comparison, Roberto Romani considers the concept of 'national character' in the intellectual histories of Britain and France. Perceptions of collective mentalities influenced a variety of political and economic debates, ranging from anti-absolutist polemic in eighteenth-century France to appraisals of socialism in Edwardian Britain. Romani argues that the eighteenth-century notion of 'national character', with its stress on climate and government, evolved into a concern with the virtues of 'public spirit' irrespective of national traits, in parallel with the establishment of representative institutions on the Continent. His discussion of contemporary thinkers includes Montesquieu, Voltaire, Hume, Millar, Burke, Constant, de Staël and Tocqueville. After the mid-nineteenth century, the advent of social scientific approaches, including those of Spencer, Hobson and Durkheim, shifted the focus from the qualities required by political liberty to those needed to operate complex social systems, and to bear its psychological pressures.

Acknowledgements
Introduction
Part I. 1750–1850: France: 1. All Montesquieu's sons: the place of esprit général, caractère national, and mœurs in French political philosophy, 1748–89
2. After the Revolution: Staël on political morality
3. From republicanism to industrialism and national character: Melchiorre Gioja, Charles Dupin and Continental political economy, 1800–48
4. The French Restoration dispute over mores and Tocqueville
Great Britain: 5. Between Whiggism and the science of manners: Britain, 1750–1800
6. British views on Irish national character, 1800–46
Part II. 1850–1914: 7. The demise of John Bull: social sciences in Britain, 1850–1914
8. Durkheim's collective representation and their background
9. Socializing public spirit, 1870–1914
Conclusion
Index.

Subject Areas: History of ideas [JFCX], Social & political philosophy [HPS], Modern history to 20th century: c 1700 to c 1900 [HBLL], European history [HBJD]