Passion, Politics, and Philosophie: Rediscovering J.-P. Brissot

(Hardback)

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Jacques-Pierre Brissot was among the major architects of the French Revolution, yet history has vilified and then dismissed him. His early intellectual development was strongly influenced by Enlightenment ideas and aspirations. However, his own remarkable construct of a just, democratic society, universal suffrage, and a renewed humanity living in moral and political freedom foreshadowed many present-day ideologies. The prevailing view of Brissot has pigeonholed him as Brissot, the police spy, a label difficult to remove. Although this contention has been disputed at some length, Loft presents an alternative view of the forces that shaped Brissot's social and political activism. Tracing the gradual evolution of his ideology from its earliest stages reveals that he did not suddenly become a radical in the mid-1780s. An open, objective, and thorough evaluation of Brissot's work uncovers the roots of his lifelong commitment to reformist, egalitarian, and democratic ideals. To understand Brissot, the man and his work, one must assess the cultural, intellectual, and political influences that surrounded him. Loft offers the necessary fusion of text and context, providing a serious reconsideration of Brissot and his contributions to the history of human rights. Scholars and other researchers of the French Revolution and European political thought will find this study of particular value.

Reviews

"In this careful study of Brissot the philosophe and journalist, before he became Brissot the revolutionary, Leonore Loft locates his work within the context of the Ancient Regime and the Enlightment. She explores the variety of religious, political, and social issues that captures his attention and illustrates the variety of sources and forces that influenced his thinking: the Bible, the classics, the young United States, the Atlantic slave trade, the vogue of science, the example of Rousseau. In doing so she not only fleshed out the figure of this remarkable individual but also addresses larger historical issues of interest to readers in many disciplines: the inevitable tension between principles and practice, the perennial question of change and continuity, and the problematic relations between democracy and diversity."-Jeffrey Merrick Professor of History University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
"Jacques-Pierre Brissot was one of the most important spokesmen for the French Revolutionary movement, and an important advocate of the abolition of slavery and the emancipation of the Jews. Leonore Loft's study is the first comprehensive examination of his extensive pre-revolutionary writings. It should do much to rehabilitate the reputation of a man who was unfairly vilified by his contemporaries and who has continued to be negelected by historians."-Jeremy D. Popkin Professor of History University of Kentucky
"Professor Loft's analysis is a significant contribution to the history of ideas from several points of view. The breadth of this study, which takes in such topics as the theory of criminal law, pamphlet journalism, the prostitution debate, the vast literature of the anti-slavery movement, will make it highly useful to the generalist as well as the specialist. This is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand the climate of opinion in France, and further afield, in the period leading up to and into the Revolution. The revaluation of the radical humanitarian Brissot is argued as vividly and cogently as anything written by the polemicist himself. And feminist scholars will not want to miss the discussion of Brissot's relationship with Felicite Dupont, or his views on the status of women."-Judith Curtis University of Toronto at Scarborough
"This is a superbly documented study of Brissot by a scholar thoroughly familiar not only with her subject's work, but also with the cultural and political climate on the French Revolution. It fully explores Brissot's manifold activities before and during the revolution as journalist, polemicist, reformist and anti-slavery activist, and it offers a compelling and convincing portrait of an idealistic man who fell victim to the unforgiving revolutionary politics."-Gita May Professor of French Columbia University
Lenore Loft...has made an important and valuable contribution to her major research area, French intellectual history...Loft has provided the serious reader/scholar with a thorough analysis of Brissot's social, legal, and political thought in the context of late-eighteenth-century France...Loft's book is not for the casual student of either the Revolution of the Enlightenment, but I emphatically recommend it to serious students and scholars of both.-History: Review of Books
Loft has provided a serious, earnest, and thorough reading of Brissot's writings from the 1780s.-H-France Book Reviews
"Loft has provided a serious, earnest, and thorough reading of Brissot's writings from the 1780s."-H-France Book Reviews
"Lenore Loft...has made an important and valuable contribution to her major research area, French intellectual history...Loft has provided the serious reader/scholar with a thorough analysis of Brissot's social, legal, and political thought in the context of late-eighteenth-century France...Loft's book is not for the casual student of either the Revolution of the Enlightenment, but I emphatically recommend it to serious students and scholars of both."-History: Review of Books

Author Bio

LEONORE LOFT is Professor of French at the State University of New York, Fredonia. Although trained in literature, her research focuses on interdisciplinary studies, particularly in the area of intellectual history. She has published numerous articles on Brissot.