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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 Public opinion Third Estate French Revolution Public sphere revolutionary politics Political sociability Jacques Necker, a protestant banker from the city-state of Geneva, …

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 … later on. Concepts > Social interaction Practices > Communication Keywords print Newspapers books information Public sphere freedom of speech censorship In the eighteenth century, the increase in circulation of books and newspapers, and …

Scientific experiments [ Politics & Society / Science ]

… Britain, scientific experiments were shown in locations as varied as coffeehouses, learned societies, and public lectures. They conveyed natural knowledge through shared aesthetic experiences; they also elicited conversation … commercialized experiments with static electricity, and Joseph Priestley and his associates introduced new gases in public lectures. Experiments were both commodities supplying a kind of cultural consumption and shared experiences within the new associational forms of the public sphere. Practices > Politics & Society People > Science Keywords experiments science chemistry electricity mechanics …

Debating societies [ Clubs & Societies / Associational culture ]

… Debating societies became well-established institutions in London and provincial cities, catering for the taste for public debate among the lower and middling sorts. Topics could be frivolous, but when societies debated politics, … they were felt to voice threateningly radical opinions. When the reaction against the French Revolution hardened, public political debate became impossible and societies were outlawed. Despite those chequered fortunes they served as … Places > Clubs & Societies Practices > Associational culture Keywords Debate Politics Middle class Plebeian Public sphere Oratory Eloquence Debating societies were commercial ventures that provided the middling and lower orders with …

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 …

Tea-table [ Furniture & Interior decoration / Rituals & Ceremonies / Eating & Drinking ]

… decoration Practices > Rituals & Ceremonies Practices > Eating & Drinking Keywords Tea Tea-table Polite sociability Public sphere Domesticity Conversation Gossip The tea-table is an object, an event, and an idea: that is to say, it is at once … at which tea is consumed, and a hybrid form of polite heterosocial sociability that occupies a liminal zone between public and private spheres. Each of these aspects is closely embedded in the discourse of sociability as it was practised …