Republic of Letters: A Cultural History of the French Enlightenment [Paperback]

Dena Goodman (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Goodman (history, Louisiana State Univ.) aims to re-create the social and cultural context in which the ideas of the Enlightenment were created and spread. Drawing from the work of Jurgen Habermas (The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere, MIT Pr., 1989), she traces the creation of a public intellectual community in France from the 17th century and explains its development through the French Revolution. Challenging traditional Enlightenment historiography, Goodman describes the Enlightenment as a set of social practices in which both men and women participated. She argues that historians have not taken a positive or serious view of the role of the salonnieres. The 1780s, however, saw the emergence of new intellectual institutions in which women were not as central, and an age of "masculine self governance" was born. A difficult but important book that will appeal to scholars of French history and culture.
Marie Marmo Mullaney, Caldwell Coll.,
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Cornell University Press (January 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0801481740
• ISBN-13: 978-0801481741
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #121,558 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #86 in Books > History > Historical Study > History of Ideas

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5.0 out of 5 stars The Enlightenment and the French Revolution, December 6, 2008

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This review is from: Republic of Letters: A Cultural History of the French Enlightenment (Paperback)

This was required reading for a graduate course in the history of the French Revolution. Dena Goodman, in her book The Republic of Letters, made a strong argument supporting the idea that the eighteenth century ushered in the Age of Enlightenment. Much like Chartier's "cultural history," Goodman's "Purpose has been to understand the Enlightenment Republic of Letters as a set of social and discursive practices and in particular to articulate the specific roles played by men and women in it" (Goodman, 303). Goodman found that the Parisian salon served as a meeting ground for group discussion on issues of political, social, and cultural discourse. Foreigners visiting this vibrant and progressive city often made it a priority to visit a Parisian salon during their stay. The salon in Enlightenment France was not a meeting place for people to exchange frivolous gossip. It was a serious working space, where new ideas were generated and profound changes in society were proposed by guests who believed in equality and whose intellectual abilities were unquestioned. It provided a framework for civilized deliberation in an atmosphere free from most constraints, where the subtleties of conversation could be explored, and where curiosity about the latest inventions-musical, scientific, or literary-was encouraged. These are the characteristics that explain the salon's extraordinary appeal to visitors from all over Europe.

However, the letter made the Parisian salons of the eighteenth century centers of the Enlightenment. With the help of the important work that was conducted by Jurgen Habermas, in understanding the new "public sphere" that flourished in the latter half of the eighteenth century, Goodman noted that correspondence served to move the Enlightenment out of the private world of the salon into the public world beyond it. Thus, "...the Republic of Letters constituted the public sphere that became the ground for political discourse that contested the closed culture of the monarchy" (Goodman, 1). Thus, by the end of the century, a multitude of letter writing forms had developed, for example: the copied letter, circulated letter, open letter, published letter, and the letter to the editor. This began to connect a large span of readers which often started with an initial intellectual exchange made in the Parisian salons. This enormous network of exchange led to the development of readers who reacted, responded, and then became writers themselves via pamphlets and the emerging periodical press.

A main purpose of the salons of Paris for the salonnières during the Enlightenment was to "satisfy the self-determined educational needs of the women who started them" (Goodman, 42). For the salonnières, the salon was a socially acceptable substitute for the formal education denied to them. Most parents at this time saw no reason in educating their daughters and even if they did, there were no institutions in which to do so. Why were women the primary players, the ones who invited the guests and proposed the subjects to be discussed in their salons? Perhaps it was because these women were the models of good manners and might act as intermediaries between guests with opposing ideas; they also had tact and discretion and saw to bringing out the best in their circle, while encouraging others to shine, rather than attracting attention to themselves. They were arbiters of taste and frequently controlled the tone or the content of the conversation, demonstrating their disapproval when the language became coarse or the discussion heated. Surrounded by philosophes, the hostess's role was to encourage and mediate the discussion, to ensure that no one guest monopolized the conversation. She was also to ensure that in the search for truth, the language was clear, that no specialized jargon was used, so that all present, whether artists, musicians, scientists, philosophers, novelists, or journalists, could follow the entire discussion without difficulty. To this end, any Latin used in scientific exposés was eliminated in favor of French, which eased communication between specialists in many fields. All subjects were discussed in common: private conversations rarely took place. The importance of the salon of the Enlightenment was therefore as a facilitator of intellectual exchanges that took place in an atmosphere of politeness and respect for others.

Finally, Goodman took Alexis De Tocqueville to task for stating the idea that the philosophes were merely engaging in abstract politics in their writings and in salon discussion. Goodman argued in her conclusion, "If the Enlightenment did not single-handedly produce the political culture of the Old Regime, it at least gave it literary form and endowed it with a set of values and practices that were republican at least as much as they were literary, because they were the values and practices of the Republic of Letters" (Goodman, 303).

Recommended reading for anyone interested in political philosophy, enlightenment history, and the French Revolution.