Ideas of poverty in the Age of Enlightenment

<p>Although poverty in the eighteenth century has long been an object of focus for social historians, it has figured only marginally in the intellectual history of the period. This is because it has been assumed that the existence of poverty was rarely problematised before the transformative decade...

Disgrifiad llawn

Wedi'i Gadw mewn:
Manylion Llyfryddiaeth
Fformat: Online
Iaith:Saesneg
Cyhoeddwyd: Manchester University Press 2024
Pynciau:
Mynediad Ar-lein:https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/93429
Tagiau: Ychwanegu Tag
Dim Tagiau, Byddwch y cyntaf i dagio'r cofnod hwn!
_version_ 1869525297666195456
collection Directory of Open Access Books
description <p>Although poverty in the eighteenth century has long been an object of focus for social historians, it has figured only marginally in the intellectual history of the period. This is because it has been assumed that the existence of poverty was rarely problematised before the transformative decade of the 1790s. Yet because the theme of poverty played important roles in many critical issues in European history, it was central to some of the key debates in Enlightenment political thought throughout the period, including the controversies about sovereignty and representation, public and private charity, as well as questions relating to crime and punishment. Indeed, leading thinkers like the Scottish political economist Adam Smith, the French Physiocrats and the Milanese jurist Cesare Beccaria had come to see the fate of the poor as an urgent political question in the middle decades of the century. This book examines some of the most important contributions to these debates, while also ranging beyond the canonical Enlightenment thinkers, to investigate how poverty was conceptualised in the wider intellectual culture, as politicians, administrators and pamphlet writers grappled with the issue. The volume also revisits the question of why and how many governments and men of letters began to address poverty as a social problem in the 1790s. It asks how far the drive to reduce or eliminate want was already underway before the French Revolution, as well as challenging the binary characterisation of debates in the period as a struggle between humanitarian radicals and cold-hearted reactionaries.</p>
format Online
id doab-20.500.12854ir-145807
institution Directory of Open Access Books
language eng
publishDate 2024
publishDateRange 2024
publishDateSort 2024
publisher Manchester University Press
publisherStr Manchester University Press
record_format ojs
spelling doab-20.500.12854ir-1458072025-07-31T06:19:21Z Ideas of poverty in the Age of Enlightenment O’Flaherty, Niall Mills, R. J. W. History Modern 18th Century Law Legal History History Europe Western bic Book Industry Communication::H Humanities::HB History::HBG General & world history bic Book Industry Communication::L Law::LA Jurisprudence & general issues::LAZ Legal history bic Book Industry Communication::H Humanities::HB History::HBJ Regional & national history::HBJD European history <p>Although poverty in the eighteenth century has long been an object of focus for social historians, it has figured only marginally in the intellectual history of the period. This is because it has been assumed that the existence of poverty was rarely problematised before the transformative decade of the 1790s. Yet because the theme of poverty played important roles in many critical issues in European history, it was central to some of the key debates in Enlightenment political thought throughout the period, including the controversies about sovereignty and representation, public and private charity, as well as questions relating to crime and punishment. Indeed, leading thinkers like the Scottish political economist Adam Smith, the French Physiocrats and the Milanese jurist Cesare Beccaria had come to see the fate of the poor as an urgent political question in the middle decades of the century. This book examines some of the most important contributions to these debates, while also ranging beyond the canonical Enlightenment thinkers, to investigate how poverty was conceptualised in the wider intellectual culture, as politicians, administrators and pamphlet writers grappled with the issue. The volume also revisits the question of why and how many governments and men of letters began to address poverty as a social problem in the 1790s. It asks how far the drive to reduce or eliminate want was already underway before the French Revolution, as well as challenging the binary characterisation of debates in the period as a struggle between humanitarian radicals and cold-hearted reactionaries.</p> 2024-09-20T04:21:33Z 2024-09-20T04:21:33Z 2024-09-19T05:41:02Z 2024 book https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/93429 https://directory.doabooks.org/handle/20.500.12854/145807 eng open access image/jpeg image/jpeg n/a n/a https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/20.500.12657/93429/1/external_content.pdf https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/20.500.12657/93429/1/external_content.pdf Manchester University Press Manchester University Press bcb4ab08-c525-4e6c-88e5-a0cf0a175533 Knowledge Unlatched Knowledge Unlatched (KU) KU Select 2024 SDG Books Manchester University Press open access
spellingShingle History
Modern
18th Century
Law
Legal History
History
Europe
Western
bic Book Industry Communication::H Humanities::HB History::HBG General & world history
bic Book Industry Communication::L Law::LA Jurisprudence & general issues::LAZ Legal history
bic Book Industry Communication::H Humanities::HB History::HBJ Regional & national history::HBJD European history
Ideas of poverty in the Age of Enlightenment
title Ideas of poverty in the Age of Enlightenment
title_full Ideas of poverty in the Age of Enlightenment
title_fullStr Ideas of poverty in the Age of Enlightenment
title_full_unstemmed Ideas of poverty in the Age of Enlightenment
title_short Ideas of poverty in the Age of Enlightenment
title_sort ideas of poverty in the age of enlightenment
topic History
Modern
18th Century
Law
Legal History
History
Europe
Western
bic Book Industry Communication::H Humanities::HB History::HBG General & world history
bic Book Industry Communication::L Law::LA Jurisprudence & general issues::LAZ Legal history
bic Book Industry Communication::H Humanities::HB History::HBJ Regional & national history::HBJD European history
topic_facet History
Modern
18th Century
Law
Legal History
History
Europe
Western
bic Book Industry Communication::H Humanities::HB History::HBG General & world history
bic Book Industry Communication::L Law::LA Jurisprudence & general issues::LAZ Legal history
bic Book Industry Communication::H Humanities::HB History::HBJ Regional & national history::HBJD European history
url https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/93429