Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
  1. Home
  2. Books
  3. National Character and Public Spirit in Britain and France, 1750–1914
  • Cited by 14
      • Show more authors
      • You may already have access via personal or institutional login
    • Select format
    • Publisher:
      Cambridge University Press
      Publication date:
      22 September 2009
      20 December 2001
      ISBN:
      9780511490712
      9780521810005
      9780521024266
      DOI:
      https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511490712
      Dimensions:
      (228 x 152 mm)
      Weight & Pages:
      0.694kg, 360 Pages
      Dimensions:
      (228 x 152 mm)
      Weight & Pages:
      0.535kg, 360 Pages
      • Subjects:
      History, Philosophy, History of Ideas and Intellectual History, Political Philosophy
    You may already have access via personal or institutional login
    • Selected: Digital
    Add to cart View cart Buy from Cambridge.org
    Subjects:
    History, Philosophy, History of Ideas and Intellectual History, Political Philosophy
    Information

    Book description

    In a work of unusual ambition and rigorous comparison, Roberto Romani considers the concept of 'national character' in the intellectual histories of Britain and France. Perceptions of collective mentalities influenced a variety of political and economic debates, ranging from anti-absolutist polemic in eighteenth-century France to appraisals of socialism in Edwardian Britain. Romani argues that the eighteenth-century notion of 'national character', with its stress on climate and government, evolved into a concern with the virtues of 'public spirit' irrespective of national traits, in parallel with the establishment of representative institutions on the Continent. His discussion of contemporary thinkers includes Montesquieu, Voltaire, Hume, Millar, Burke, Constant, de Staël and Tocqueville. After the mid-nineteenth century, the advent of social scientific approaches, including those of Spencer, Hobson and Durkheim, shifted the focus from the qualities required by political liberty to those needed to operate complex social systems, and to bear its psychological pressures.

    Reviews

    ‘Romani has written a first-class study of a fascinating and enduring problem … this book asks fundamental questions regarding the relationship between morality and political freedom. By placing these debates in a context that is both historical and comparative Romani has laid bare the obstinate complexity of the problems posed by the notion of national character.’

    Source: The European Legacy

    ‘The content of the book is dense and detailed … a significant contribution …’

    Source: The American Historical Review

    ‘The ambitiousness of its sweep through more than 150 years of Anglo-French intellectual history is easily apparent … [it is] based on an impressively broad array of primary materials.’

    Stephen Heathorn Source: H-Albion

    ‘Romani opens up new vistas on terrain that has become over familiar in some cases and remained obscure in others.’

    Source: European Journal of Political Theory

    ‘… stirring and critical account … Romani's wide-ranging, sufficiently argued, comprehensive study would be of respective interest to every historian of economic thought aspiring to a different reading of economic ideas against their intellectual and cultural context.’

    Source: History of Economic Ideas

    Refine List

    Actions for selected content:

    Select all | Deselect all
    • View selected items
    • Export citations
    • Download PDF (zip)
    • Save to Kindle
    • Save to Dropbox
    • Save to Google Drive

    Save Search

    You can save your searches here and later view and run them again in "My saved searches".

    Please provide a title, maximum of 40 characters.
    Cancel
    ×

    Contents

    Contents

    Metrics

    Altmetric attention score

    Full text views

    Total number of HTML views: 0
    Total number of PDF views: 0 *
    Loading metrics...

    Book summary page views

    Total views: 0 *
    Loading metrics...

    * Views captured on Cambridge Core between #date#. This data will be updated every 24 hours.

    Usage data cannot currently be displayed.

    Accessibility standard: Unknown

    Why this information is here

    This section outlines the accessibility features of this content - including support for screen readers, full keyboard navigation and high-contrast display options. This may not be relevant for you.

    Accessibility Information

    Accessibility compliance for the PDF of this book is currently unknown and may be updated in the future.