Walton - Policing Public Opinion in the French Revolution

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Walton, Charles, professor of history.

Policing public opinion in the French Revolution : the culture of calumny and the problem of free speech / Charles Walton.

p.cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-0-19-536775-1

1. Freedom of speechFranceHistory.2. CensorshipFranceHistory.3. Civil rightsFranceHistory18th century.4. FranceHistoryRevolution, 17891799.I. Title.

JC599.F8W35 2009

303.376094409033dc222008008549

For Alice

If this study succeeds in shedding light on the freedom of expression during the French Revolution, it is thanks to the ideas and opinions others have shared freely with me over the years. My greatest thanks go to Robert Darnton, my dissertation advisor, who has followed the progress of this project from its earliest stages. His incisive comments and support, not to mention his own work, have been immensely helpful. I also owe many thanks to David Bell, who has read several drafts of this study, offering useful insights each time. Phil Nord and Peter Lake read this work in its form as a dissertation and provided valuable suggestions. I am indebted to them both.

I would also like to convey my gratitude to my undergraduate mentors, Carla Hesse and Susanna Barrows, who inspired my interest in French cultural history at the University of California, Berkeley. Unsurprisingly, it was in Berkeleya place where controversies and struggles over free speech never seem to exhaust themselvesthat I became interested in the issue. It was mostly in France, however, that this project developed, and I owe Paul Cohencohort from Princeton, camarade in Parisenormous thanks for his frequent and careful readings of my work. Stephen Clay deserves thanks for alerting me to the importance of calumny during the Revolution and for sharing his archival expertise when I was still trying to figure out how to read an inventory. I am grateful to Alan Forrest and Dena Goodman for their kindness and generosity in helping me get past some obstacles early on in the project.

Several friends and colleagues have read and commented on earlier drafts of all or parts of this book, and I would like to express my gratitude to them all: Julia Abramson, David Andress, Mihaela Bacou, Ariane Chebel dAppollonia, Charly Coleman, Jennifer Heuer, Russell Jacoby, Andrew Jainchill, Lucien Jaume, Colin Jones, Nina Kushner, Thomas Kaiser, Laura Mason, Anne McCall, John Merriman, Joel Migdal, Cristina Nehring, Jeremy Popkin, Robert Post, Allan Potofsky, Jeffrey Ravel, Neil Safier, Jennifer Sessions, Todd Shepard, Francesca Trivellato, and David Troyanski. I would also like to thank those who have shared their ideas and advice with me over the years: Hilary Bernstein, Gregory Brown, Jonathan Cole, Danielle Haase-Dubosc, Annie Duprat, Arlette Farge, Amy Freund, Bernard Gainot, Bryan Garsten, Glenda Gilmore, Jeff Horne, Michael Kwass, Herman (Gene) Lebovics, James Livesey, Kenneth Loiselle, Jill Maciak Walshaw, Jean-Clment Martin, Anne McCall, Renaud Morieux, Samuel Moyn, Gerald Neuman, Brian Ogilvie, Thierry Rigogne, Cliff Rosenberg, Terry Whiteside, Pierre Serna, Patrick Weil, and Isser Woloch. Several colleagues at Sciences Po, Paris, the University of Oklahoma, Norman, and Yale University have pushed me to think about the problem of calumny and free speech beyond the context of the French Revolution, among them, James Cane-Carrasco, Joanne Freeman, Lillian Guerra, and Melissa Stockdale. I have also learned much from the students enrolled in my seminar on the history of free speech in the Atlantic World, which I taught at Sciences Po and Yale. Their passionate interest in the subject served as a motivating reminder of why I chose this topic in the first place.

Several of the events discussed in grew out of conversations with the late Edna Lemay, who shared her extensive knowledge about the early revolutionary National Assemblies with me. Daniel Roche provided me with his transcriptions of the unpublished parts of Jacques Mntras journal, and I extend my thanks to him. Philippe de Carbonnires deserves thanks for the generous time spent helping me find appropriate illustrations for this book. Thanks go to my friend and neighbor in Paris, Daniel Laberthonnire, for the many hoursdays, reallyassisting me in formatting my data on the cahiers de dolances. I would like to thank my editor, Susan Ferber, for taking on this project shortly after I had completed my dissertation and for her unflagging support in seeing the project through. I also appreciate the valuable comments of OUPs anonymous readers of this manuscript.

Research for this book has been generously funded by the Social Science Research Council, the Center for International Studies and the Council on Regional Studies of Princeton University, the Hilles Fund and the European Studies Council of Yale University, and the Oklahoma Humanities Council. I appreciate their support.

Finally, I would like to express my gratitude to my parents as well as to friends and family in France who offered me their help and have kept my motivation from flagging: Jean-Marc Commun, Soria Hafed, Rebecca Walton and Jean-Christophe Giron, Smain Benouahlima, and the Gineste family. Ariane Chebel dAppollonia and Michael Montgomery offered me their sympathetic ears and intelligent reflections over the years. One of my greatest debts is to Joseph Gonzalez, a historian of early modern Europe and longtime friend, who inspired my interest in history at a very early stage. Lastly, I owe warm thanks to Yacine Khezzari.