1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910780061103321

Autore

Romani Roberto

Titolo

National character and public spirit in Britain and France, 1750-1914 / / Roberto Romani [[electronic resource]]

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Cambridge : , : Cambridge University Press, , 2002

ISBN

1-107-12503-0

1-280-41945-8

0-511-17545-0

0-511-15581-6

0-511-32890-7

0-511-49071-2

0-511-04494-1

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (ix, 348 pages) : digital, PDF file(s)

Disciplina

941.07

Soggetti

National characteristics, British - History

National characteristics, French - History

Public interest - Great Britain - History

Public interest - France - History

Great Britain Intellectual life

France Intellectual life

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 05 Oct 2015).

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

pt. 1. 1750-1850. 1. All Montesquieu's sons: the place of esprit general, caractere national, and moeurs in French political philosophy, 1748-1789. 2. After the Revolution: Stael on political morality. 3. From republicanism to industrialism and national character: Melchiorre Gioja, Charles Dupin, and Continental political economy, 1800-1848. 4. The French Restoration dispute over mores and Tocqueville. 5. Between Whiggism and the science of manners: Britain, 1750-1800. 6. British views on Irish national character, 1800-1846 -- pt. 2. 1850-1914. 7. The demise of John Bull: social sciences in Britain, 1850-1914. 8. Durkheim's collective representations and their background. 9. Socializing public spirit, 1870-1914.



Sommario/riassunto

In a work of unusual ambition and rigorous comparison, Roberto Romani considers the concept of 'national character' in the intellectual histories of Britain and France. Perceptions of collective mentalities influenced a variety of political and economic debates, ranging from anti-absolutist polemic in eighteenth-century France to appraisals of socialism in Edwardian Britain. Romani argues that the eighteenth-century notion of 'national character', with its stress on climate and government, evolved into a concern with the virtues of 'public spirit' irrespective of national traits, in parallel with the establishment of representative institutions on the Continent. His discussion of contemporary thinkers includes Montesquieu, Voltaire, Hume, Millar, Burke, Constant, de StaeĢˆl and Tocqueville. After the mid-nineteenth century, the advent of social scientific approaches, including those of Spencer, Hobson and Durkheim, shifted the focus from the qualities required by political liberty to those needed to operate complex social systems, and to bear its psychological pressures.