Publishing and Cultural Politics in Revolutionary Paris, 1789-1810 (Volume 12)

Studies on the History of Society and Culture

by Carla Hesse

In 1789 French revolutionaries initiated a cultural experiment that radically transformed the most basic elements of French literary civilization—authorship, printing, and publishing. In a panoramic analysis, Carla Hesse tells how the Revolution shook the Parisian printing and publishing world from top to bottom, liberating the trade from absolutist institutions and inaugurating a free-market exchange of ideas.

Historians and literary critics have traditionally viewed the French Revolution as a catastrophe for French literary culture. Combing through extensive new archival sources, Hesse finds instead that revolutionaries intentionally dismantled the elite literary civilization of the Old Regime to create unprecedented access to the printed word. Exploring the uncharted terrains of popular fiction, authors' rights, and literary life under the Terror, Carla Hesse offers a new perspective on the relationship between democratic revolutions and modern cultural life.

Genres: History

256 pages, Hardcover

First published October 4, 1991

About the author

Carla Hesse is a Professor of History at the University of California, Berkeley. A fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences since 2009, she is a specialist in modern European History and the history of communication. She is president of the Authors Alliance Board of Directors.