Cosmopolitan Patriots: Americans in Paris in the Age of Revolution

Philipp Ziesche

University of Virginia Press, Jan 18, 2010 - History - 239 pages

This truly transnational history reveals the important role of Americans abroad in the Age of Revolution, as well as providing an early example of the limits of American influence on other nations. From the beginning of the French Revolution to its end at the hands of Napoleon, American cosmopolitans like Thomas Jefferson, Gouverneur Morris, Thomas Paine, Joel Barlow, and James Monroe drafted constitutions, argued over violent means and noble ends, confronted sudden regime changes, and negotiated diplomatic crises such as the XYZ Affair and the Louisiana Purchase. Eager to report on what they regarded as universal political ideals and practices, Americans again and again confronted the particular circumstances of a foreign nation in turmoil. In turn, what they witnessed in Paris caused these prominent Americans to reflect on the condition and prospects of their own republic. Thus, their individual stories highlight overlooked parallels between the nation-building process in both France and America, and the two countries' common struggle to reconcile the rights of man with their own national identities.

Contents

• Introduction: 1
• Exporting American Revolutions Gouverneur Morris Thomas Jefferson and the Debate aboutthe French Constitution 1789: 15
• Was ever such a prize won with so little innocent blood? Political Violence and the Global Stakes of the French Revolution 17901792: 39
• Cosmopolitan Sensibilities and National Regeneration The Work of Joel Barlow 17921794: 64
• Strange that Monroe should warn us against Jacobins The Problem of Popular Sovereignty in Thermidorian Parisand Federalist America 17941796: 88
• The End of a Beautiful Friendship AntiCosmopolitanism AntiAmericanism and Public Diplomacy 17961799: 111
• From Sister Republics to Republican EmpiresThe Jeffersonian Divorce from France and the Louisiana Purchase 18001805: 136
• Epilogue: 165
• Notes: 171
• Bibliography: 203
• Index: 227

About the author

Philipp Ziesche is Associate Editor of the Papers of Benjamin Franklin at Yale University.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Cosmopolitan Patriots: Americans in Paris in the Age of Revolution; Jeffersonian America, ISSN 2470-279X
• Author: Philipp Ziesche
• Edition: illustrated
• Publisher: University of Virginia Press, 2010
• ISBN: 0813928915, 9780813928913
• Length: 239 pages
• Subjects: History / Europe / France; History / Revolutions, Uprisings & Rebellions; History / United States / Colonial Period (1600-1775); History / United States / Revolutionary Period (1775-1800); Political Science / International Relations / General; Social Science / General