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Social Change and the Emergence of the Modern Individual, 1770-1800
by Lynn Hunt
An illuminating exploration of the tensions between self and society in the age of revolutions.
The eighteenth century was a time of cultural friction: individuals began to assert greater independence and there was a new emphasis on social equality. In this surprising history, Lynn Hunt examines women's expanding societal roles, such as using tea to facilitate conversation between the sexes in Britain. In France, women also pushed boundaries by becoming artists, and printmakers' satiric takes on the elite gave the lower classes a chance to laugh at the upper classes and imagine the potential of political upheaval. Hunt also explores how promotion in French revolutionary armies was based on men's singular capabilities, rather than noble blood, and how the invention of financial instruments such as life insurance and national debt related to a changing idea of national identity. Wide-ranging and thought-provoking, The Revolutionary Self is a fascinating exploration of the conflict between individualism and the group ties that continues to shape our lives today.
"Taking in subjects ranging from the reform of the French military to the rise of social science, Hunt delivers a work that stands comfortably alongside Natalie Zemon Davis, Emmanuel Ladurie, and other prominent Europeanists. An engaging work of history that looks to changes in daily life as a key to understanding transformative movements." ―Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"With her celebrated insight and irrepressible curiosity, America's great historian of the revolutionary era explores a foundational struggle of modern life: the paradoxical effort to achieve equality and individual autonomy in societies revealed to shape and thwart them. At once clear-eyed and optimistic, the book is a bracing reminder for our own times that enormous changes can be wrought by the seemingly littlest of things." ―Darrin M. McMahon, author of Equality: The History of an Elusive Idea
"Lynn Hunt stands out as one of the finest historians in the United States or, for that matter, anywhere. Her new book combines virtuosity and erudition to show how two seemingly abstract and opposed tendencies, individual autonomy and social determinism, actually shaped lives through tea drinking, portrait painting, military discipline, financial speculation, and other unexpected activities during the nineteenth century." ―Robert Darnton, author of The Revolutionary Temper: Paris, 1748-1789
This information about The Revolutionary Self was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Lynn Hunt is Distinguished Research Professor at the University of California, Los Angeles. The author of numerous works, including Inventing Human Rights and Writing History in the Global Era and former president of the American Historical Association, she lives in Los Angeles.
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