The French Revolution and the Birth of Modernity

Written From Widely Different Perspectives, These Essays Characterize The Great Revolution As The Dawn Of The Modern Age, The Grand Narrative Of Modernity. The Scope Of Issues Under Scrutiny Is Extremely Broad, Ranging From The Analyses Of The Hotly Debated Class Character Of 1789 And The Problem Of The Nation State To The Cult Of The Supreme Being, The Emancipation Of The Jews, And The Cultural Heritage Of The Revolution. Contents: Introduction / Ferenc Fehér -- Mars Unshackled : The French Revolution In World-historical Perspective / Theda Skocpol And Meyer Kestnbaum -- The Making Of A Bourgeois Revolution / Eric Hobsbawm -- State And Counterrevolution In France / Charles Tilly -- Cultural Upheaval And Class Formation During The French Revolution / Patrice Higonnet -- Jews Into Frenchmen : Nationality And Representation In Revolutionary France / Gary Kates -- The French Revolution As A World-historical Event / Immanuel Wallerstein -- Saint-just And The Problem Of Heroism In The French Revolution / Miguel Abensour -- Violence In The French Revolution : Forms Of Ingestion, Forms Of Expulsion / Brian Singer -- The Cult Of The Supreme Being And The Limits Of The Secularization Of The Political / Ferenc Fehér -- Practical Reason In The Revolution : Kant's Dialogue With The French Revolution / Ferenc Fehér. Contents: Hegel And The French Revolution : An Epitaph For Republicanism / Steven B. Smith -- Alexis De Tocqueville And The Legacy Of The French Revolution / Harvey Mitchell -- Transformations In The Historiography Of The Revolution / François Furet. Edited By Ferenc Fehér. The Majority Of These Papers Were Originally Published In Social Research, V. 56, No. 1, Spring 1989. Includes Bibliographical References And Index.