George Washington's False Teeth: An Unconventional Guide to the Eighteenth CenturyGeorge Washington was inaugurated as president in 1789 with one tooth in his mouth, a lower left bicuspid. The Father of His Country had sets of false teeth that were made of everything but wood, from elephant ivory and walrus tusk to the teeth of a fellow human. Darnton shows in this title that the Enlightenment had false teeth also - that it was not the Father of the Modern World, responsible for all its advances and transgressions. In restoring the Enlightenment to a human scale, Darnton locates its real aims, ambitions and significance. So too with the French Revolution, another icon of the 18th century, approached here through the gossip, songs and broadsides that formed the political nervous system of Paris during the ancien regime. Figures that we think we know - Voltaire, Jefferson, Rousseau, Condorcet, even historians themselves emerge afresh in Darnton's hands, their vitality, if not their teeth intact. |
Contents
THE CASE FOR THE ENLIGHTENMENT GEORGE WASHINGTONS FALSE TEETH | 3 |
THE NEWS IN PARIS AN EARLY INFORMATION SOCIETY | 25 |
THE UNITY OF EUROPE CULTURE AND POLITENESS | 76 |
THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS VOLTAIRE AND JEFFERSON | 89 |
THE GREAT DIVIDE ROUSSEAU ON THE ROUTE TO VINCENNES | 107 |
THE CRAZE FOR AMERICA CONDORCET AND BRISSOT | 119 |
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George Washington's False Teeth: An Unconventional Guide to the Eighteenth ... Robert Darnton No preview available - 2003 |
Common terms and phrases
abbé American archives Bastille bâtarde de catin Bibliothèque Bourse Brissot cafés Calonne civilization Clavière Clavière's communication Compagnie des eaux comte de Mirabeau comtesse du Barry Condorcet court Crèvecoeur culture d'Enville Dénonciation de l'agiotage Diderot dossier EARLY INFORMATION SOCIETY eighteenth century eighteenth-century Paris Encyclopédie Enlightenment essay Étienne Étienne Clavière Europe European FALSE TEETH française France French Revolution Gallo-American Gazette GEORGE WASHINGTON'S FALSE Girondists HISTORIANS PLAY historique Jacques-Pierre Brissot Journal de Paris king libelles literary livres Louis XV Louis-Sébastien Mercier Mairobert Mazzei Mémoires secrets moral Neuchâtel nouvelles Old Regime pamphlets Parisians Philip Mazzei philosophes poems police political Pompadour printed published pursuit of happiness Qu'une bâtarde radical reports Republic of Letters Robert Darnton Rousseau ROUSSEAUISM ROUTE TO VINCENNES salons shares siècle Social Contract songs speculations story tion took turned Versailles verse Voltaire VOLTAIRE AND JEFFERSON Washington WASHINGTON'S FALSE TEETH ΤΕΕΤΗ