Civil Society and Empire: Ireland and Scotland in the Eighteenth-Century Atlantic World (The Lewis Walpole Series in Eighteenth-Century Culture and History)

James Livesey traces the origins of the modern conception of civil society—an ideal of collective life between the family and politics—not to England or France, as many of his predecessors have done, but to the provincial societies of Ireland and Scotland in the eighteenth century. Livesey shows how civil society was first invented as an idea of renewed community for the provincial and defeated elites in the provinces of the British Empire and how this innovation allowed them to enjoy liberty without directly participating in the empire’s governance, until the limits of the concept were revealed. The concept of civil society continues to have direct relevance for contemporary political theory and action. Livesey demonstrates how western governments, for example, have appealed to the values of civil society in their projections of power in Bosnia and Iraq. Civil society has become an object central to current ideological debate, and this book offers a thought-provoking discussion of its beginnings, objectives, and current nature. Livesey Traces The Origins Of The Modern Conceptions Of Civil Society To Ireland And Scotland During The 18th Century, Arguing That It Was Invented As An Idea Of Renewed Community For Provincial And Defeated élites To Allow Them To Enjoy Liberty Without Participating In Governance. Coffee, Association, And Cultural Hybridity In Seventeenth-century England -- Improvement And The Discourse Of Society In Eighteenth-century Ireland -- The Authority Of The Defeated: Catholic Languages Of The Moral Order In The Eighteenth Century -- The Experience Of Empire: The Black Family, Britons, And The Emergence Of Society -- A Habitat For Hopeful Monsters: David Hume And The Scottish Theorists Of Civil Society -- Society And Empire In Revolution: Ireland And Britain In The 1790s. James Livesey. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. Contents Acknowledgments Introduction: Civil Society and the Eighteenth-Century Atlantic World CHAPTER ONE: Coffee, Association, and Cultural Hybridity in Seventeenth-Century England CHAPTER TWO: Improvement and the Discourse of Society in Eighteenth-Century Ireland CHAPTER THREE: The Authority of the Defeated: Catholic Languages of the Moral Order in the Eighteenth Century CHAPTER FOUR: The Experience of Empire: The Black Family, Britons, and the Emergence of Society CHAPTER FIVE: A Habitat for Hopeful Monsters: David Hume and the Scottish Theorists of Civil Society CHAPTER SIX: Civil Society and Empire in Revolution: Ireland and Britain in the 1790s Conclusion Notes Index A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W Y Z