Garnham, Barry G.

Dr. B. G. Garnham received his Ph.D. from the University of Durham and has taught at the Universities of Geneva, Aberdeen, and Durham. His publications and research interests cover eighteenth- and nineteenth-century French literature and thought, and also twentieth-century French drama and prose fiction.

Intellectual Background of the French Revolution

2007 0-7734-5472-1
This work’s contribution to scholarship derives principally from the presentation of sixty-eight texts, written by fifteen authors known collectively as the Idéologues, an influential group in late 18th and early 19th century French thought. Unlike previous studies of the Idéologues which either focused on the group as a whole or on particular individuals, the present works offers the reader direct access to examples of their work; the reader is able to appreciate the different styles of argumentation and nuances of approach and emphasis among writers who present a remarkable unanimity of purpose and outlook. The volume is designed both to stimulate further interest in an area which has in recent years been relatively neglected, but which is essential to an understanding of the transition between the Enlightenment and the social thinkers of the 19th century, and to provide an introduction to the period for those whose specialisation lie elsewhere.