Robert Darnton Libri

A Sunday Times, Times Literary Supplement, and The Times Book of the Year, this account brilliantly captures the lead-up to the French Revolution, showcasing the insights of a distinguished historian. Events do not arrive in isolation; they are intertwined with attitudes, values, and emotions. Understanding these events requires an exploration of the perceptions that accompany them. The storming of the Bastille in July 1789 ignited a global upheaval, marking the end of monarchy and the emergence of a new society. While many historians attribute the Revolution to economic decline, class conflict, or Enlightenment thought, Robert Darnton shifts focus to the perspectives of Parisians at the heart of the Revolution. He investigates the 'revolutionary temper' through his extensive study of pamphlets, books, and public performances, portraying Paris as an information society akin to our own. News circulated in cafes, marketplaces, and public spaces, shaping the collective consciousness of ordinary citizens. Over forty years, various events—from treaties and royal scandals to balloon ascents—eroded public trust in royal authority and destabilized the social order. Darnton's work reveals the hidden dynamics of history, providing a riveting narrative that allows us to view these transformative decades through the eyes of contemporary Parisians.

The exploration of scandalous literature in eighteenth-century France reveals how libelers challenged the authority of the Old Regime. Robert Darnton delves into the vibrant lives of these figures, illustrating their impact on the ideological shifts that paved the way for a more radical political culture during Robespierre's era. This examination highlights the interplay between literature and politics, showcasing how dissenting voices contributed to the transformation of French society.

Offers a reasoned defence of what the French revolutionaries were trying to achieve, and urges us to look beyond political events to understand the idealism and universality of their goals.

A fresh perspective on censorship emerges in this elegant history by a superb conjurer of the past. With his uncanny ability to spark life in the past, Robert Darnton re-creates three historical worlds in which censorship shaped literary expression. In 18th-century France, censors navigated the intricacies of royal privilege in a working collaboration with authors and booksellers on the making of literature. Absolutism operating through negotiation yielded both suppression and protection of some of the great works of the Enlightenment. In 19th-century India, the efforts of the British Raj to control "native" literature gave voice to an Indian opposition that exposed the tensions between Britain's liberal principles and imperial power. And in 20th-century East Germany, the Communist Party's attempt to engineer literature actually yielded a range of outcomes from brutal repression to the complex negotiation behind some of the best-known works by German authors. Censorship emerges not as a simple repression that is everywhere the same but a melding of power and culture grounded in history

Exploring the interplay between history and culture, this collection of essays spans topics from the 18th to the 20th centuries. It includes captivating anecdotes, such as a 1792 incident in the French Legislative Assembly, and offers insights into media, the publishing world, and the history of books. Darnton also delves into intellectual history and examines the connections between history, literature, anthropology, and sociology. His engaging writing style makes complex themes accessible and thought-provoking.

The story of how book piracy in pre-Revolutionary France expanded the reach of the works that would inspire momentous change.

In 1749, Francois Bonis, a medical student in Paris, found himself hauled off to the Bastille for distributing an abominable poem about the king. So began the Affair of the Fourteen, a police crackdown on ordinary citizens for unauthorized poetry recitals. Why was the official response to these poems so intense? This book deals with this topic.

When the apprentices of a Paris printing shop in the 1730's held a series of mock trials and then hanged all the cats they could lay their hands on, why did they find it so hilariously funny that they choked with laughter when they reenacted it in pantomime some twenty times? Why in the 18th century version of "Little Red Riding Hood" did the wolf eat the child at the end? What did the anonymous townsman of Montpelier have in mind when he kept an exhaustive dossier on all the activities of his native city? These are some of the provocative questions Robert Darnton attempts to answer in this dazzling series of essays that probe the ways of thought in what we like to call "The Age of Enlightenment."

Robert Darnton's work is one of the main reasons that cultural history has become an exciting study central to our understanding of the past.

When the apprentices of a Paris printing shop in the 1730s held a series of mock trials and then hanged all the cats they could lay their hands on, why did they find it so hilariously funny that they choked with laughter when they reenacted it in pantomime some twenty times? Why in the eighteenth-century version of Little Red Riding Hood did the wolf eat the child at the end? What did the anonymous townsman of Montpelier have in mind when he kept an exhaustive dossier on all the activities of his native city? These are some of the provocative questions Robert Darnton answers in this classic work of European history in what we like to call “The Age of Enlightenment.”

Robert Darnton führt den Leser in die dunkle, auch von der Wissenschaft bislang nicht ausgeleuchtete Welt der Raubdrucker, Hinterstubenverleger, Schmuggler und Polizeispitzel, die sich als literarischer Untergrund hinter der Fassade der Aufklärung gebildet hatte: Nicht die Enzyklopädie und die heute bekannten philosophischen Werke - das ist die sensationelle Entdeckung Darntons - waren die verbreiteten und wirksamen Bücher, sondern eine ganz andere Literatur. Während auf der offiziellen Seite die Zensur, eine monopolistische Zunft und die Polizei die Buchindustrie beschützten, begann eine weit verzweigte literarische Unterwelt eine illegale Literatur zu verbreiten, die Leser überall in Frankreich mit aufrührerischen Ideen und Ideologien versorgte. Aus naheliegenden Gründen verwischten die Hauptfiguren dieser Subkultur ihre Spuren, so daß Robert Darntons Arbeit sich wie eine detektivische Spurensicherung liest.

9 november 1989, Berlijn. De Muur wordt geslecht. De germanofoob Robert Darnton, zojuist gearriveerd in West-Berlijn, besluit een Berlijns dagboek bij te houden. Vanaf dat moment tot de verkiezingen in de DDR in maart, houdt hij de gebeurtenissen nauwlettend in de gaten. Niet alleen in Berlijn ten oosten van Berlijn maar in het hele land ten oosten van Helmsted. Hij wil weten wat er gebeurt met een volk waarvan de grenswachten voor 9 november 1989 met scherp schoten op iedereen die in de buurt van hun wachttorens kwam, en na die datum vriendelijk lachend ieder mens behulpzaam waren. In Bitterfeld, de meest verontreinigde gemeente van Duitsland, spreekt hij met verantwoordelijke SED-functionaris. Hij spreekt met een trabi-handelaar, met een jood die zijn eigen bestaan als een vergissing van de geschiedenis beschouwt, en met een voormalig censor. Deze geeft hem het geheime dossier waarin de gehele boekenproduktie van de DDR voor 1990 vooraf geprogrammeerd werd, en door hun onderlinge gesprekken krijgt hij in de geest van de censor. Het Stasi-dossier van Leipzig komt aan de orde, en levert materiaal om te begrijpen hoe het op angst gebaseerde systeem functioneerde. De lezer krijgt een goed overzicht van een historische gebeurtenis, en begrip voor de mensen die aan de oostkant de Muur zagen vallen.

Cette étude se penche sur la place des écrivains de second ordre dans la préparation de la Révolution française. Le paysage des Lumières, vu des boutiques de libraires ou des officines de la police, à la croisée entre histoire de l'édition et sociologie des auteurs et du public, pose en termes novateurs la question de la lecture et de la vie intellectuelle au XVIIIe siècle

Franz Anton Mesmer, Arzt und Theologe, trat 1788 in Paris mit einer Heilslehre auf, die behauptete, alle Körper seien von einem subtilen Fluidum durchdrungen, das als Grundvoraussetzung für Phänomene wie Elektrizität u. ä. zu gelten habe. Menschliche Krankheiten seien eine Störung im Fluß dieses Fluidums. Den Franzosen der Aufklärung erschienen solche wunderbaren Kräfte jedoch eine ernsthafte Erklärung für Entwicklungen in der Politik und Gesellschaft am Vorabend der Revolution.

Cultuurhistorische en cultuurfilosofische beschouwingen van Nederlandse en buitenlandse sprekers.

Der Historiker Robert Darnton wurde während seines Forschungsaufenthaltes in Berlin 1989 Augenzeuge einer revolutionären Wende - ein Reisender in der ihm geschichtlich vertrauten, aber politisch fremden Welt. Er sprach mit den Menschen über ihre Motive, Ängste und Hoffnungen und protokollierte, was er sah, hörte und erlebte. Seine 28 Episoden aus dem östlichen Deutschland sind Dokumente von hoher Authentizität und analytischer Intelligenz - Geschichtsschreibung und Geschichtenschreiben in einem. »Dieses Buch gehört zum Besten, was über Deutschland und die Deutschen in ihrem Epochenjahr erschienen ist. Es ist ein Revolutionsbericht aus Berlin, Leipzig und Bitterfeld.« FRANKFURTER ALLGEMEINE ZEITUNG