The New Cambridge Modern History: Volume 8, The American and French Revolutions, 1763-93 (The New Cambridge Modern History)

740 Pages·1965·52.48 MB·English

by  Elliot H. Goodwin

THE NEW
CAMBRIDGE MODERN HISTORY
ADVISORY COMMITTEE
G.N.CLARK J. R.M.BUTLER J. P. T. BURY
THE LATE E.A. BENIANS
VOLUME VIII
THE AMERICAN AND
FRENCH REVOLUTIONS
1763-93
Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008
Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008
THE NEW
CAMBRIDGE MODERN
HISTORY
VOLUME VIII
THE AMERICAN AND
FRENCH REVOLUTIONS
1763-93
EDITED BY
A. GOODWIN
CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS
CAMBRIDGE
LONDON • NEW YORK • MELBOURNE
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Published by the Syndics of the Cambridge University Press
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© Cambridge University Press 1965
Library of Congress catalogue card number: 57-14935
ISBN o 521 04546 o hardcovers
ISBN 0 521 29108 9 paperback
First published 1965
Reprinted 1968 1971
First paperback edition 1976
Printed in Great Britain
at the
University Printing House, Cambridge
(Euan Phillips, University Printer)
Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The editor wishes to acknowledge with gratitude his debt to Dr Peter
Murray, Dr J. Lynch, Dr J. Roberts and Dr M. S. Anderson who, at a
crucial stage in the preparation of this volume, agreed to associate them-
selves with it at short notice. All of them willingly accepted and fulfilled
a rather strictly imposed time schedule, which the editor is conscious may
not have given them all the opportunities for the preparation or final
revision of their contributions which normally they would have had the
right to expect.
Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008
Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTORY SUMMARY
By A. GOODWIN, Emeritus Professor of Modern History in the pages 1-24
University of Manchester
CHAPTER II
POPULATION, COMMERCE AND ECONOMIC IDEAS
BySWoHN HABAKKUK, Vice-Chancellor, Principal of Jesus College and
formerly Chichele Professor of Economic History in the University of Oxford
I. POPULATION GROWTH
The rapidity of population growth in the second half of the eighteenth century
confined to certain areas of northern Europe 25-6
Malthus' distinction between the 'preventive' and 'positive' checks on popula-
tion 26-7
The variation in the rates of population increase mainly attributable to different
levels of the birth-rate 28-30
The effects of epidemics, war and famine 30
Changes in age-structure consequent on high mortality as a cause of the sub-
sequent rapid population growth 30-1
The causes of lower mortality in the second half of the eighteenth century still in
dispute 31
The influences sustaining the birth-rate 32-3
2. TRADE
The concentration of trade in the Atlantic, Mediterranean and B a l t i c . .. 33
The mechanism of trade with the Americas 34
Exchange difficulties with the Far, Middle and Near East 34-5
The Baltic trade 35
The economic effects of the monopolies of colonial trade 36-7
The decline of the Dutch carrying trade 38
The growing relaxations of restraints on trade 39
British and international trade expansion 40-1
Its effects on industrial development 41
The reasons for Britain's lead in the Industrial Revolution 42
The expansion of French external trade 43
The resort to new methods of industrial production 44
3. ECONOMIC IDEAS
The rise of systematic economic analysis 45
The concept of a self-regulating natural order 45-6
The Physiocrats—agrarian and fiscal problems 47
Economic liberalism—Adam Smith 48
The derivative character of Spanish economic thought 49
The divergent trends in Italian economic thought 50
German and Austrian Cameralism contrasted with Western economic liberalism 50-3
The effects of economic speculation on national policy 53-4
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CONTENTS
CHAPTER III
LITERATURE AND THOUGHT: THE ROMANTIC
TENDENCY, ROUSSEAU, KANT
By W. STARK, Professor of Sociology, Fordham University, New York
Old orthodoxies, the Enlightenment and the growth of pre-Romanticism . . page 55
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-78) 56
His views on the corrupting influence of modern society 57-8
His social ideals derived from Geneva and republican Rome . . .. 58-60
Discours sur les Sciences et les Arts 61
Discours sur VInegaliti (1755) 62-3
Du Contrat Social (1762) 64-6
Considerations sur le Gouvernement de Pologne 66
Projet de Constitution pour la Corse 67
La Nouvelle Heloise (1761); tmile (1762) 67
Rousseau's break with Geneva and the coterie Holbachique . . .. 68
Comparison of English Methodism With Rousseauism 69-70
English pre-Romantic literature—the Ossianic poems 70
The Sturm und Drang movement in Germany . . . . . . . 7i~3
The return to rationalism. Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) . . . .. 73,
The permanent significance of Kantian philosophy 74
The synthesis of rationalism and empiricism in the Critique of Pure Reason (1781) 74-5
Transcendental philosophy 76
Kant as moral philosopher—the categorical imperative 76-8
The Critique of Practical Reason (1788) 78
Burke's Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790) 79
Bentham's Utilitarianism . . . . . . . . . .. 79-8o
CHAPTER IV
MUSIC, ART AND ARCHITECTURE
I. MUSIC
By F. W. STERNFELD, Fellow of Exeter College and Reader in the
History of Music in the University of Oxford
The origins of the modern sonata-form—Johann Stamitz at Mannheim and the
Viennese classical school 81-2
Musical dictionaries and monographs 83
Haydn's musical predecessors 84
The opera comique—Pergolesi's La Serva Padrona (1752) 85
Rousseau's Le Devin du village (1752) 86
The historical importance of Gluck's Orfeo (1762) 86-7
The influence of Stamitz at Mannheim 87
C. P. Emanuel Bach 87-8
Gottfried Van Swieten as musical patron 88
Haydn's musical career 88-90
Symphonies 90
String quartets 90-1
Vocal music 91
Later instrumental compositions—the Salomon concerts (1791-2) . . . 91-2
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CONTENTS
Mozart's youthful performances page 92
His independence of patronage and indifference to contemporary taste . . 92-3
Musical compositions in his Vienna period (1781-91)
Piano concertos (1782-6); Die Entfiihrung aus dent Serail and Le Nozze
di Figaro 94-5
Don Giovanni (1787) 95-6
Die Zauberflote (1791) 95-6
2. ART AND ARCHITECTURE
By PETER MURRAY Professor of the History of Art, Birkbeck College,
University of London
Neoclassicism 9&-7
Rome as an artistic centre—the Grand Tour 97
The etchings of Giambattista Piranesi 98
J. J. Winckelmann as exponent of Neoclassicism 98-9
The excavation of Herculaneum and Pompeii 99
A. R. Mengs (1728-79) and the early phase of Neoclassical painting . . . 100-1
The sculpture of Houdon and Canova 102
Rationalist theories of architecture—de Cordemoy, Lodoli and M. A. Laugier . 102-3
The reaction against Greek architectural styles 104
Piranesi's Delia Magnificenza ed Architettura de' Romani (1761) . .. 105
Sir William Chambers' Treatise on Civil Architecture (1759) . . .. 105
The Gothic revival 105-6
The Picturesque movement and English landscape gardening . . .. 106-7
Influence of Sir Joshua Reynolds as President of the Royal Academy. . . 107-8
History painting—Benjamin West and J. S. Copley 108-9
Alderman Boydell's Shakespeare Gallery 109-10
The'Adam revolution'in architecture no
Neoclassicism in France no
Soufflot's Pantheon 110-11
C. N. Ledoux and E. L. Boullee as Neoclassical architects m-12
J. L. David's Oath of the Horatii (1785) and the transition to revolutionary
Neoclassicism 113-H
CHAPTER V
SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
By the late D. MCKIE, formerly Professor of the History and Philosophy of Science
in the University of London
Mathematics and mechanics—J. L. Lagrange's Mecanique analytique (1788) . us
Astronomy—Herschel's discovery of Uranus (1781) 116-17
Buffon's ipoques de la Nature (1778) 118
Improvement in scientific instruments 118
Joseph Black and the science of heat 118-20
The'phlogiston'theory of combustion 121-2
Priestley's isolation of oxygen 122-3
Lavoisier's discovery of the chemical composition of air and water . . . 123-5
The scientific classification of chemical substances 125-6
Lavoisier's Traiti iUmentaire de chimie (1789) and the foundations of modern
chemistry 127
Lavoisier and Laplace and the study of respiration 128-9
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CONTENTS
The law of reciprocal proportions page 130
Priestley, Galvani and Volta—the study of electricity 130-1
Quantitative research in meteorology 131-2
Geology—the controversy between the Neptunists and the Vulcanists . . 132-4
French and English cartography 134-5
Scientific societies, academies and journals 135-7
Progress in technology 137-8
James Watt and the evolution of the steam engine 138
Berthollet and the industrial use of chlorine for bleaching 139
Mechanical inventions 139-40
The supremacy of French science in the later eighteenth century . . . 140-2
CHAPTER VI
EDUCATIONAL IDEAS, PRACTICE AND INSTITUTIONS
By the late A. V. JUDGES, formerly Professor of the History of Education in the
University of London
The educational implications of eighteenth-century rationalism . . .. 143-4
The French Encyclopaedia and the notion of adult education . . .. 14s
The search for an alternative to religious education 146
International co-operation in educational reform—the Masonic movement. . 147-8
The importance of biological studies in educational experiment . . . . 148
The role of the universities in Scotland, North America and Germany . . 149-50
German, French and Russian academies of learning 151-3
The reaction against Locke's sensationalist psychology in Germany . . . 153-4
The impact of the psychological treatises of the abbe de Condillac . . . 155
David Hartley and the origins of Utilitarian behaviourism 156
The biological trend in French educational theory 156-7
Education and social reconstruction—Helvetius and Owen 158-9
The English dissenting academies 160-1
'Modern' schools in America and Germany—Basedow's Philanthropinum at
Dessau 161-2
Rousseau's educational theory 163-5
The effects of the dissolution of the Society of Jesus 166-8
Educational reform in revolutionary France 169-70
Condorcet's scheme for national education (April 1793) 170-1
Lepeletier de Saint-Fargeau's primary-school draft 171-2
The Ecoles Centrales of 1795 173
Institutions of advanced study—Ecole Normale Superieure and Ecole Poly-
technique 173
CHAPTER VII
ARMED FORCES AND THE ART OF WAR
I. NAVIES
By CHRISTOPHER LLOYD, formerly Professor of History,
Royal Naval College, Greenwich
The inferiority of British naval strategy in the American War of Independence . 174
The defects of eighteenth-century naval tactics 175
The deficiencies of the British naval signalling system 175-6
The peace and war establishment of the British navy 176-7
Recruitment and impressment 177
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