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Jacques Necker (and public opinion) [ Politics / Publicity ]

… virtue by his supporters, and a fraudulent charlatan by his enemies, Necker well understood the importance of public opinion in affairs of state. Under the Old Regime, he worked hard to defend both his reputation and that of his … explores Necker’s changing image in revolutionary opinion to show how the revolution ultimately shifted the terms of public opinion as a form of political sociability in French politics. People > Politics Concepts > Publicity Keywords … 176). Necker, meanwhile, emerged in the eyes of the nation’s deputies, and the patriotic public, as a true ally and figure synonymous with the revolution itself. As we can see in the illustration below, Necker is held aloft by the …

Public opinion (journalism and communication) [ Social interaction / Communication ]

… Abstract Journals and books played a relevant role in the construction of modern public opinion and the diffusion of new forms of sociability shrewdly investigated in the twentieth century. As some of … scholars of cultural processes point out (such as Innis, Habermas, McLuhan, Williams), the construction of popular public opinion is one of the most significant characteristics of the eighteenth century, especially in England. Writers and poets (such as Swift, Pope, Richardson) became the main public figures in the sharing of information, opinions and collective reflections. This stems from the rise of the popular press …

Valentine Greatrakes [ Science / Art and Literature ]

… sociability. People > Science People > Art and Literature Keywords Miracle Healer Supernaturalism Pseudo-science Public Figure Charisma Irrational Crowd Bill of Rights Popular Emancipation In 1666 Valentine Greatrakes (Affane, County of … Church of England’s doctrine that miracles had ceased and reducing the royal mystique of the King’s touch, influenced public opinion towards the most famous miracle healer of the age, King Charles II himself . Greatrakes’s encroaching on …

Celebrity [ Publicity ]

… Abstract Celebrity was a form of sociability as well as a form of publicity that took its modern form over the course of the long eighteenth century. It was related to, but distinct from, … used in the early nineteenth century as a noun identifying particularly famous, and interesting, individuals. Concepts > Publicity Keywords celebrity publicity Fame media self biography News Henry Sacheverell Celebrity is a form of fame that … the explosive growth of the popular press and mass literacy at the end of the nineteenth century’. 2 1 . Antoine Lilti, Figures publiques : l’invention de la célébrité 1750-1850 (Paris : Fayard, 2014); English edition: The Invention of …

Coffeehouses [ Institutions / Food & Drink venues ]

… of a complementary sociable institution. Places > Institutions Places > Food & Drink venues Keywords Coffee Coffeehouse Public sphere Club Addison Johnson Boswell Habermas Macaulay Tavern Coffeehouses were key centres of sociability in … entitled The Vertue of the Coffee Drink (c.1652), in which he claimed credit for being the first person to sell coffee publicly in England. By 1656, James Farr, had established the Rainbow Coffeehouse in competition with Rosee and soon … The success of the Addisonian coffeehouse ideal made the coffeehouse a less controversial place and as a consequence it figures less prominently in the social discourse of the later eighteenth century. The gradual diminishment of debates …

Scottish Enlightenment [ Political & Moral philosophy ]

… & Moral philosophy Keywords Moral philosophy Manners Politeness Improvement commerce Cosmopolitanism Britishness Public sphere Urbanity Gender In his 1742 essay ‘ Of essay writing’, the Scottish philosopher David Hume gave a clue to … his friend Adam Smith were forged via the stimulus of conversation and intellectual exchange in a range of private and public spheres in Scotland, as well as across Britain and in the cities and salons of continental Europe. Moreover, … with a deferential nobility and the type of salon culture that had developed in France. 5 From a different perspective, figures like Andrew Fletcher had assumed that the loss of political independence would entail cultural damage too. The …