Citizens and Citoyens: Republicans and Liberals in America and France
In a tour de force of comparative intellectual history, Mark Hulliung sharply challenges conventional wisdom about the political nature of the "sister republics," America and France.

Hulliung argues that the standard American account of a continuous Jacobin republican tradition—"illiberal to the core"—is fatally misleading. In reality it was the nineteenth-century French liberals who undermined the cause of liberalism, and it was French republicans who eventually saved liberal ideals. And comparison with France provides compelling evidence that the American republic was from the beginning both liberal and republican; Americans have been engaged in the "right debate, wrong country." Antiliberal intellectuals—New Leftists, neoconservatives, and communitarians alike—have disfigured much of the "republican" scholarship by falsely conjuring up a history of the United States wherein rooted and moral republicans once held sway where today we encounter uprooted and amoral liberals.

Lively, stimulating, and sure to be controversial, Citizens and Citoyens is a valuable contribution to the political culture debate.

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Citizens and Citoyens: Republicans and Liberals in America and France
In a tour de force of comparative intellectual history, Mark Hulliung sharply challenges conventional wisdom about the political nature of the "sister republics," America and France.

Hulliung argues that the standard American account of a continuous Jacobin republican tradition—"illiberal to the core"—is fatally misleading. In reality it was the nineteenth-century French liberals who undermined the cause of liberalism, and it was French republicans who eventually saved liberal ideals. And comparison with France provides compelling evidence that the American republic was from the beginning both liberal and republican; Americans have been engaged in the "right debate, wrong country." Antiliberal intellectuals—New Leftists, neoconservatives, and communitarians alike—have disfigured much of the "republican" scholarship by falsely conjuring up a history of the United States wherein rooted and moral republicans once held sway where today we encounter uprooted and amoral liberals.

Lively, stimulating, and sure to be controversial, Citizens and Citoyens is a valuable contribution to the political culture debate.

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Citizens and Citoyens: Republicans and Liberals in America and France

Citizens and Citoyens: Republicans and Liberals in America and France

by Mark Hulliung
Citizens and Citoyens: Republicans and Liberals in America and France

Citizens and Citoyens: Republicans and Liberals in America and France

by Mark Hulliung

Hardcover(New Edition)

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Overview

In a tour de force of comparative intellectual history, Mark Hulliung sharply challenges conventional wisdom about the political nature of the "sister republics," America and France.

Hulliung argues that the standard American account of a continuous Jacobin republican tradition—"illiberal to the core"—is fatally misleading. In reality it was the nineteenth-century French liberals who undermined the cause of liberalism, and it was French republicans who eventually saved liberal ideals. And comparison with France provides compelling evidence that the American republic was from the beginning both liberal and republican; Americans have been engaged in the "right debate, wrong country." Antiliberal intellectuals—New Leftists, neoconservatives, and communitarians alike—have disfigured much of the "republican" scholarship by falsely conjuring up a history of the United States wherein rooted and moral republicans once held sway where today we encounter uprooted and amoral liberals.

Lively, stimulating, and sure to be controversial, Citizens and Citoyens is a valuable contribution to the political culture debate.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780674009271
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Publication date: 11/04/2002
Series: Charles Eliot Norton Lectures , #52
Edition description: New Edition
Pages: 274
Product dimensions: 6.25(w) x 9.25(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Mark Hulliung is Richard Koret Professor of the History of Ideas, Brandeis University.

Table of Contents

Preface

Acknowledgments

A Brief Chronology of French Political Regimes

1. Republiccanism and/or Liberalism?

Past and Present

Republics Ancient and Modern

Tocqueville's Return Trip

2. "Rights Talk" in American and French Accents

The Presistence of "Rights Talk" in America

From the Old "Rights Talk" to the New

The General Will and Individual Rights

Rights in France: Liberals vs. Republicans

Atlantic Crossings

3. The Institutions and Ethos of Freedom

Political Institutions, Liberal and Republican

Mainstream vs. Backwater Republicanism

France: the Search for a Liberal Ethos

America: the Search for a Civic Ethos

4. The Uses of Republican Rhetoric in America

Down with the Monarchists

Down with the Aristocrats

Republics and Democracies

Corruption and Conspiracy

5. The Strange Career of Liberalism in France

From Liberal to Conservative

From Solidarist to Conservative

From Politique to Mystique

6. Liberal, Illiberal, and Antiliberal Republics

The Illiberal Republic

The Antiliberal Republic

The Liberal Republic

Notes

Index

What People are Saying About This

Hulliung means to contribute to the recent debate about liberalism and republicanism in the making of modernity. He adds a very welcome new dimension to the discussion by developing a comparison of the two "sister republics," the U.S. and France. He shows, persuasively, that the so-called great divide between these two traditions in America never existed (except in a few marginal places), but that it has been a real feature of French political culture. If you thought this debate had grown old and stale, think again. Hulliung tells us both much that is new and much that is true, and his readers are the beneficiaries.

Michael P. Zuckert

Hulliung means to contribute to the recent debate about liberalism and republicanism in the making of modernity. He adds a very welcome new dimension to the discussion by developing a comparison of the two "sister republics," the U.S. and France. He shows, persuasively, that the so-called great divide between these two traditions in America never existed (except in a few marginal places), but that it has been a real feature of French political culture. If you thought this debate had grown old and stale, think again. Hulliung tells us both much that is new and much that is true, and his readers are the beneficiaries.
Michael P. Zuckert, University of Notre Dame

Stanley Hoffmann

A superb work--well-written, pungent, and exemplary as a comparative study. Mark Hulliung shows in an erudite and convincing way that the same concepts--liberalism and republicanism, as well as rights--have had very different meanings and uses in America and France.
Stanley Hoffmann, Harvard University

James F. Hollifield

In this tour de force of comparative intellectual history of the United States and France, Hulliung offers a provocative reading and reinterpretation of the liberal and republican traditions in France and the United States. This is a well-timed book that seeks a new synthesis of liberal and republican thought--a master work, brilliantly written by one of the finest minds in political theory today.
James F. Hollifield, Southern Methodist University

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