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Aurelian Crăiuțu
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A Virtue for Courageous Minds: Moderation in French Political Thought, 1748-1830 Paperback – May 31, 2016

by Aurelian Craiutu (Author)
5.0 out of 5 stars 2
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Previous page
  1. Print length
    336 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Princeton University Press
  4. Publication date
    May 31, 2016
  5. Dimensions
    6.14 x 0.91 x 9.21 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    0691171343
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0691171340
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"Aurelian Craiutu's book is a fine study of a neglected subject. Unlike so many studies that, in our age of academic specialization, restrict themselves to limited time frames such as the Old Regime or the Revolution or Napoleon or the Restoration, Craiutu's book covers all of these. . . . Aurelian Craiutu has produced a well-researched and clearly written study of an important subject."---Harvey Chisick, American Historical Review

"For those looking for a spirited argument for the emergence of moderation as a formal body of thought in mid-eighteenth century France and a vigorous defense of moderation as a valid and sophisticated form of political thinking relevant even for the politics of contemporary America, this is your book."---William Olejniczak, H-France Review

"Craiutu's splendid study joins recent books by Harry Clor and Peter Berkowitz that recover appreciation for the moral, political, and philosophical venue of moderation. Clor and Berkowitz do not share Craiutu's emphasis on the indeterminacy of the political good, instead valuing the traditional ideals of the golden mean and the happy medium as indicating a higher path to justice. Such debate about moderation, and its import for a free politics, is a breath of fresh air in our public discourse."---Paul Carrese, Springer Science+Business Media

"Craiutu's . . . book will be read with interest, particularly as a contribution to the constitutional history of the period."---C. P. Courtney, French Studies

"[A] rich historical feast and fascinating interpretation of moderate French political thought . . . Craiutu provides us with in this wonderful book."---Benjamin Hill, Review of Metaphysics

"A cynic might say that moderation is too vague a concept to justify study. But Craiutu here has been able to use this concept, fluid as it is, to give a thought provoking treatment of a long chronological period, though with emphasis on the French ancien régime and the Revolution."---Christopher Guyver, European History Quarterly

"This book makes a significant contribution to the historiography of French political thought by filling an unfortunate and even somewhat bizarre gap in the scholarship. . . . This is a very useful and readable book, which provides a wealth of new and important information carefully and compellingly presented. Particularly interesting is Craiutu's focus on the moderates' constitutional thinking, and his underlining of both the complexity of their thought and the importance that this complexity held in their own views of politics. Professor Craiutu should be commend[ed] for not 'washing' away problems, ambivalences, and tensions in the thinkers he examines; he deals with them in a scholarly and balanced fashion, while also conveying his sympathy for them."---Helena Rosenblatt, French Politics, Culture & Society

"Craiutu's splendid study joins recent books by Harry Clor and Peter Berkowitz that recover appreciation for the moral, political, and philosophical virtue of moderation. Clor and Berkowitz do not share Craiutu's emphasis on the indeterminacy of the political good, instead valuing the traditional ideals of the golden mean and the happy medium as indicating a higher path to justice. Such debate about moderation, and its import for a free politics, is a breath of fresh air in our public discourse."---Paul Carrese, Society

"[A] spirited and stimulating book."---Michael Drolet, Perspectives on Politics

"A Virtue for Courageous Minds offers a rare opportunity for contemplating on the breadth and depth of the political centre that was born into the modernity at the foundational turning point of European history at the end of the long eighteenth century. . . .This book will inspire scholars to enter a field that has insufficiently treated the many aspects of moderation to date."---Minchul Kim, History of European Ideas

"Craiutu does a fine job of explaining how each thinker embraced and advocated political moderation in public debates in France. He also sets out an admirable case tying such a diverse group together."---Christian R. Donath, History of Political Thought

"Craiutu paints a beguiling portrait of the moderate as not only capable of sincere, even radical, political passion, but also as the champion of a distinct political program favoring institutional complexity, safeguards for individual liberty, and resistance to doctrinaire politics of every form. . . . If . . . the other forthcoming volumes come close to matching the scholarly achievements of A Virtue for Courageous Minds, then not only will they be well worth the wait, but Craiutu's desired rehabilitation of the moderate will be well under way."---Ross Carroll, Eighteenth Century Life

Review

"Aurelian Craiutu has written a superb book. The lost virtue of moderation―what Tacitus called 'the most difficult lesson of wisdom'―has at last been given voice. It would be a nice irony if it took a group of French thinkers to teach contemporary Americans something about the value of political moderation and constitutional government. I hope this book will be widely read, especially by our elected officials."―Steven Smith, Yale University

"Moderation was one of the principal ideological tendencies in and after the revolution in France and one of the least studied. This is an original and excellent study of a much neglected subject."―Jonathan Israel, Institute for Advanced Study

"A meticulous, thoughtful, and instructive study. Craiutu shows how, in an immoderate time and place, a coherent politics of moderation emerged. It will be of great interest to historians and students of political philosophy alike."―David Bell, Princeton University

"This is an impeccable piece of scholarship written by one of this generation's leading experts on French political thought. Craiutu makes a bold claim for the crucial importance of a tradition of political moderation that has too readily been overlooked in the history of Western political thought. This is one of the most exhaustively documented and richly detailed works of intellectual history I've read in years."―Richard Boyd, Georgetown University

"France is generally thought to be a country of revolutions and extremes. A Virtue for Courageous Minds tells us that this picture has been very much exaggerated. France had a moderate and liberal tradition that was alive and well during the French Revolution and thereafter. Craiutu rescues from oblivion a group of very nuanced thinkers who were influential during their times but have been forgotten by history."―Helena Rosenblatt, City University of New York

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Princeton University Press; Reprint edition (May 31, 2016)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 336 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0691171343
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0691171340
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.12 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.14 x 0.91 x 9.21 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    5.0 out of 5 stars 2

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Aurelian Crăiuțu

Aurelian Crăiuțu

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Aurelian Craiutu is Professor of Political Science at Indiana University, Bloomington, where he teaches courses in political theory and history of political thought. Born in 1966, he was educated in Romania and France, and earned his Ph.D. in politics from Princeton University in 1999.

He has published extensively in the field of modern French political thought (Montesquieu, Mme de Stael, Necker, Guizot, Tocqueville, and Raymond Aron). Craiutu's publications include: Liberalism under Siege: The Political Thought of the French Doctrinaires (Lexington Books, 2003), Le Centre introuvable (Paris: Editions Plon, 2006), A Virtue for Courageous Minds: Moderation in French Political Thought (Princeton University Press, 2012), Faces of Moderation: The Art of Balance in an Age of Extremes (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2017), and Why Not Moderation? Letters to Young Radicals (Cambridge University Press, 2023). He also co-edited America through European Eyes (Penn State University Press, 2009, with Jeffrey C. Isaac), Conversations with Tocqueville (Lexington Books, 2009, with Sheldon Gellar), and Norberto Bobbio: A Life for Democracy on the Battlefield of Ideologies (Routledge, 2023, with David Ragazzoni)

Aurelian Craiutu has also edited and translated into English the works of French liberals such as Francois Guizot's History of the Origins of Representative Government in Europe (Liberty Fund, 2002), Madame de Staël's Considerations on the Principal Events of the French Revolution (Liberty Fund, 2008), Tocqueville on America after 1840 (Cambridge University Press, 2009; with Jeremy Jennings), and Jacques Necker's On Executive Power in Great States (Liberty Fund, 2020).

Aurelian Craiutu also writes and publishes in Romanian. He is the author, among others, of Elogiul libertatii [In Praise of Liberty] (Polirom, 1998) and Elogiul moderatiei [In Praise of Moderation] (Polirom, 2006; revised and enlarged edition at Spandugino Publishing House 2022).

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