Publications by Jordy Geerlings
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Tijdschrift voor Geschiedenis 127 (Amsterdam University Press) pages 187–207
The many forms of sociability that flourished during the eighteenth century have long been viewed... more The many forms of sociability that flourished during the eighteenth century have long been viewed as vehicles of the Enlightenment. Not only were societies, clubs, and lodges permeated by a spirit of egalitarianism, secularism, and religious tolerance, they were also
essential factors in the dissemination of knowledge and new ideas. Additionally, sociability has been associated with the rise of the public sphere and civil society, as various societies
provided important platforms for the new bourgeois public to discuss and address the issues of the day. However, recent research has challenged these views. Historians are
increasingly finding that many societies were permeable to a variety of worldviews and practices, not all of which can be meaningfully associated with the Enlightenment. New
insights further suggest the importance of local restrictions and social conventions influencing many societies, further complicating the traditional understanding of the progressive,
enlightened nature of sociability during this period. At the same time, sociability remains an important object of research in its own right, as well as an indispensible window onto an ever increasing variety of historical phenomena. This article explores the ways in
which recent research has transformed our understanding of sociability and its place in the Enlightenment.
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Theory for Dummies
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Jaarboek Numaga
Minibiographical publication on AA Roukens (1747 Nijmegen – 1822 Arnhem) mayor of Nijmegen and me... more Minibiographical publication on AA Roukens (1747 Nijmegen – 1822 Arnhem) mayor of Nijmegen and member of the city council, freemason and lawyer. Roukens was well known, even notorious, for his ideological flexibility. Neither a full supporter of the Patriot movement nor wholeheartedly in the orangist camp, he explicitely declared sides only in 1794, when he realized that the occupation by French revolutionary troops would lead Nijmegen's substantial catholic population to claim equal political rights. Roukens was able to preserve some of his influence by cooperating with the leader of the catholic political camp, Jan Engelbert Sanders van Well. After the failure of his political carreer in Nijmegen, Roukens held positions at the court of justice in Arnhem and later in the Hague.
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Jaarboek Numaga
"Cornelis de Koning (Rotterdam, 11th october 1772 - unknown), soldier and radical revolutionary. ... more "Cornelis de Koning (Rotterdam, 11th october 1772 - unknown), soldier and radical revolutionary. Listed in historian Joost Rosendaal's list of Patriot refugees as the child of Isaac de Koning, who was banished for distributing the subversive text 'Aan het Volk van Nederland'.
After joining his father in banishment in 1788, Cornelis served in various military units and came to Nijmegen in 1795. There, he became an active member of the civil militia and became involved in revolutionary politics. By the beginning of 1797, Cornelis had become director of the catholic revolutionary society 'Eendracht maakt macht'. Was briefly incarcerated for having insulted the city council on januari 21st, 1797, but was liberated soon after by a coup d'état on february 11th, and made leader of the local militia. Sought employment in The Hague in 1798. Later life unknown.
"
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Ad Maas, Eric Jorink (eds) Newton and the Netherlands How Isaac Newton was fashioned in the Dutch Republic, Leiden University Press
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Talks by Jordy Geerlings
En mars 1758, Guilliaume Pex, célèbre couturier d’Amsterdam, fut refusé a la porte d’une église c... more En mars 1758, Guilliaume Pex, célèbre couturier d’Amsterdam, fut refusé a la porte d’une église catholique de cette ville, à cause de son association a la franc-maçonnerie locale. La franc-maçonnerie étant suspecte et interdite aux yeux de l’église catholique, toute implication des catholiques dans la franc-maçonnerie fut alors traitée comme un danger au statut de minorité tolérée dont profitait la communauté catholique dans la République néerlandaise. Pex, qui ne partageait pas les inquiétudes du clergé, a répondu au prêtre avec ces mots : « voyez ce que vous faites, vous vous provoquerez des grandes difficultés. » Et ces difficultés n’ont pas tardé à arriver: le refus a tellement fait scandale à Amsterdam, qu’il a fallu une intervention par la papauté pour y mettre fin. Qualifiant comme ‘imprudent’ l’intervention du prêtre, Benoit XIV (1675-1758) a tacitement permis la continuation des activités maçonniques de Pex, tout en maintenant la condamnation officielle de la franc-maçonnerie.
Le cas de Pex est une indication importante de la présence de catholiques dans la franc-maçonnerie néerlandaise, malgré les interdictions imposées par l’église catholique. Et cela fait partie d’un phénomène plus large : la participation croissante des minorités religieuses aux nouvelles formes de sociabilité dans la République néerlandaise du dix-huitième siècle. Ces minorités ont profité de la croissance extraordinaire du nombre de sociétés scientifiques, culturelles, récréatives, sociétés d’engagement social inspiré par l’idealisme des Lumières que République a connu entre 1750 et 1800. La présence de catholiques dans la sociabilité est une correction importante a l’historiographie traditionnelle, qui assume une absence (et passivité) générale de l’élite catholique dans la société civile néerlandaise.
Mais doit-on s’imaginer une histoire d’émancipation dans laquelle les minorités religieuses ont su échapper, aux restrictions imposées depuis la Reformation, grâce à ces organisations de sociabilité? Pas nécessairement! Pour le cas néerlandais, il faut encore poser une question simple, mais essentielle : combien d’individus issues de minorités religieuses ont, en fait, participé a ces organisations ? Ces sociétés, loges maçonniques, ont-ils vraiment fonctionné comme moteurs d’intégration et d’émancipation?
Voila les questions que je tenterai d’explorer dans cette communication, à partir de mes recherches sur la sociabilité des Lumières à Amsterdam, ville principale de la République sur le plan politique, économique, et démographique, et Leiden, ou siégeait la première université du pays.
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When French revolutionary troops arrived in the Dutch Republic at the end of 1794, the promise of... more When French revolutionary troops arrived in the Dutch Republic at the end of 1794, the promise of new liberties became the subject of considerable tension and conflict. In order to steer the revolutionary process in their favour, various interest groups across the Dutch Republic set up political societies that soon acquired significant power. From these societies arose a new generation of politicians, which for the first time included Catholics, dissenting Protestants, and even Jews.
But the egalitarian and tolerant idealism of the Revolution caused tensions among religious groups. Conservative Calvinists could not accept the loss of the close connection between the Calvinist church and the state and guild members feared competition from previously excluded minorities. Many historians have since claimed that these and other difficulties resulted in a closing down of the Dutch Enlightenment, the establishment of a broadly Protestant governing and cultural elite, and the confessionalization of politics and even sociability in its many forms.
This paper examines the issue of confessional diversity in Dutch organized sociability during the revolutionary period. Drawing on case studies from Amsterdam, Leiden, and Nijmegen, it will trace the rise and fall of the religiously neutral model of sociability generally associated with the Enlightenment, and specifically with the revolutionary period. It will explore how within the various forms of sociability in this period, a variety of ways was developed to deal with the newly controversial fact of religious difference. The key point it makes is that the rise and fall of the confessionally neutral clubs and societies cannot be described simply as the success or failure of the discourse of tolerance, and that more attention should be given to the ability of some individuals from religious minority groups to consolidate positions of influence slowly built up during the pre-revolutionary years.
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In 1745, Johann Konrad Franz von Hatzfeld was arrested in The Hague for his radical work La Decou... more In 1745, Johann Konrad Franz von Hatzfeld was arrested in The Hague for his radical work La Decouverte de la Verité. The book furiously denounced Isaac Newton, severely criticized organized religion, and reminded European potentates to listen to his advice in all matters political, or fail. In the eyes of his contemporaries, Hatzfeld was an intolerable blasphemer, an overambitious social climber and a scientific charlatan. To our modern eyes, Hatzfeld’s political radicalism, deist worldview, and highly confrontational approach to controversy identify him as a member of the Radical Enlightenment.
Yet, legitimate though it may be, what does it mean when we associate Hatzeld with the Radical Enlightenment? As a concept, the Radical Enlightenment proved its great merits. It has
expanded our view of the Enlightenment world and allowed us to make more sense of thinkers previously thought of as isolated curiosities, including Hatzfeld. However, recent critical
responses have emphasized that in reality, the Radical Enlightenment was a highly complex and diffuse entity. It displayed an important degree of ideological diversity, with many different coteries appropriating and reinterpreting its message for various purposes during the eighteenth century.
These critiques have become mantras of the Enlightenment studies community, giving force to the assertion that ‘Radical Enlightenment’ is an misleading concept which creates an
entity that never really existed. Some scholars have therefore reverted to arguing that there was only one Enlightenment, others wish to pragmatically abandon the concept altogether. Yet, given
the very distinct nature of radical thinking compared to the moderate wing of the Enlightenment, as well as the strong social and intellectual links between radical thinkers that various studies have shown, neither approach seems to satisfy.
This paper will present one possible path out of this discussion. Using Hatzfeld as a test case, it will explore the merits of approaching the Radical Enlightenment from the viewpoint of
radicals thinkers’ self-perception, self-styling and attitudes toward their intellectual context. How
did thinkers we would qualify as radicals conceive of themselves? Did they have a sense of belonging to a larger, cohesive movement, and did membership of any societies or clubs
influence this? Or was being a radical a rather more individual project? What ways of ‘belonging’ were there, and what factors influenced individual’s decisions to adopt or reject the
ideas we associate with the Radical Enlightenment? If documents like the Freydencker-Lexikon by Johann Anton Trinius were regarded as imperfect attempts to survey the intellectual
landscape even in their own time, what did that landscape look like for the radicals themselves?
In short, this paper outlines and examines an approach to the Radical Enlightenment from the point of view of its ‘members’, and inquires specifically what this ‘membership’ entailed.
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Public lecture on the role of the catholic revolutionary society 'Eendracht maakt macht' during t... more Public lecture on the role of the catholic revolutionary society 'Eendracht maakt macht' during the French-Batavian period in Nijmegen, focusing on the issue of interconfessional relations between various political pressure groups. The paper shows that 'Eendracht maakt macht' exercised a considerable influence on the political process within the city of Nijmegen, and that its interactions with the rival political group 'Voorbeelden Trekken', - which consisted mostly of members of the reformed community - were highly complex. Instead of a cold war between Protestants and Catholics, the two societies formed shifting coalitions amongst their members who cooperated whenever shared political interests allowed, in spite of extensive conflicts. In addition, the paper demonstrates that 'Eendracht maakt macht' became internally divided between the Catholic elite and a radical group which no longer accepted the elite as its legitimate leadership.
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Papers by Jordy Geerlings
Tijdschrift voor Geschiedenis, 2012
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Date
Thursday 27 March 2014
Time
from 13:30 to 16:00
Location
Nijmegen, The ... more Date
Thursday 27 March 2014
Time
from 13:30 to 16:00
Location
Nijmegen, The Netherlands. Erasmusbuilding, E 20.12
Organisation
Radboud University Graduate School of Humanities
Speaker
James E Block, associate professor of political science at DePaul University in Chicago
Subtitle
Cultural and Political Transformation in the US: From the Rise of Modernity to the Post-Modern Challenge.
Description
Has America failed as a political project? Have the underlying ideals of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness proved illusory? Many commentators are increasingly answering this question in the affirmative. They refer to a growing body of evidence: a crippling national debt, the regular derailment of the democratic process in the Capitol through filibusters, the hollowing out of the state through liberalization, and the seemingly total grip of the financial sector over the political course of the country. Simultaneously, US society suffers from increasing poverty, declining quality of education and many other problems. The American Dream has been declared dead, and the post-9/11 US is being described as an empire in decline.
Yet, to what extent is this narrative of decline justified? James E Block, associate professor of political science at DePaul University in Chicago, has dedicated his scholarly career to examining the development of the political project that is the United States. He has published extensively on the origins and development of this project, focusing on the founding fathers, but also on less-known, more implicit ways in which Americans subsequently defined their national aspirations. The American project, he provocatively claims, has been defined in different ways by successive generations and was often underpinned by values rather different from the total liberty of the individual.
The loss of the modern self-confidence of the 20th century has been traumatic, but has also given space to reinterpretations of America's history, its self image(s) as a political project, and what roles the citizens can/should play. As a scholar who experienced the ferment of UC Berkeley in the 1960s, as a public interest lawyer campaigning for the rights of the criminally insane in the 1970s, and as an intellectual fascinated by grassroots political movements and utopian initiatives from the summer of 1968 to the present day Occupy Movement, Block brings a unique perspective to these issues.
Based on Professor Block's expertise, this masterclass will give particular attention to:
US Political History, Citizenship, and Democracy
Utopia and radical politics from 1968 to the Occupy Movement
US History and the politics of childhood
History of political thought in the US
The idea of decline in (US) history.
Contact
Jordy Geerlings
Email
j.geerlings@let.ru.nl
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Book Reviews by Jordy Geerlings
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Tijdschrift voor Geschiedenis 2012-2, pp 280-281
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Uploads
Publications by Jordy Geerlings
essential factors in the dissemination of knowledge and new ideas. Additionally, sociability has been associated with the rise of the public sphere and civil society, as various societies
provided important platforms for the new bourgeois public to discuss and address the issues of the day. However, recent research has challenged these views. Historians are
increasingly finding that many societies were permeable to a variety of worldviews and practices, not all of which can be meaningfully associated with the Enlightenment. New
insights further suggest the importance of local restrictions and social conventions influencing many societies, further complicating the traditional understanding of the progressive,
enlightened nature of sociability during this period. At the same time, sociability remains an important object of research in its own right, as well as an indispensible window onto an ever increasing variety of historical phenomena. This article explores the ways in
which recent research has transformed our understanding of sociability and its place in the Enlightenment.
After joining his father in banishment in 1788, Cornelis served in various military units and came to Nijmegen in 1795. There, he became an active member of the civil militia and became involved in revolutionary politics. By the beginning of 1797, Cornelis had become director of the catholic revolutionary society 'Eendracht maakt macht'. Was briefly incarcerated for having insulted the city council on januari 21st, 1797, but was liberated soon after by a coup d'état on february 11th, and made leader of the local militia. Sought employment in The Hague in 1798. Later life unknown.
"
Talks by Jordy Geerlings
Le cas de Pex est une indication importante de la présence de catholiques dans la franc-maçonnerie néerlandaise, malgré les interdictions imposées par l’église catholique. Et cela fait partie d’un phénomène plus large : la participation croissante des minorités religieuses aux nouvelles formes de sociabilité dans la République néerlandaise du dix-huitième siècle. Ces minorités ont profité de la croissance extraordinaire du nombre de sociétés scientifiques, culturelles, récréatives, sociétés d’engagement social inspiré par l’idealisme des Lumières que République a connu entre 1750 et 1800. La présence de catholiques dans la sociabilité est une correction importante a l’historiographie traditionnelle, qui assume une absence (et passivité) générale de l’élite catholique dans la société civile néerlandaise.
Mais doit-on s’imaginer une histoire d’émancipation dans laquelle les minorités religieuses ont su échapper, aux restrictions imposées depuis la Reformation, grâce à ces organisations de sociabilité? Pas nécessairement! Pour le cas néerlandais, il faut encore poser une question simple, mais essentielle : combien d’individus issues de minorités religieuses ont, en fait, participé a ces organisations ? Ces sociétés, loges maçonniques, ont-ils vraiment fonctionné comme moteurs d’intégration et d’émancipation?
Voila les questions que je tenterai d’explorer dans cette communication, à partir de mes recherches sur la sociabilité des Lumières à Amsterdam, ville principale de la République sur le plan politique, économique, et démographique, et Leiden, ou siégeait la première université du pays.
But the egalitarian and tolerant idealism of the Revolution caused tensions among religious groups. Conservative Calvinists could not accept the loss of the close connection between the Calvinist church and the state and guild members feared competition from previously excluded minorities. Many historians have since claimed that these and other difficulties resulted in a closing down of the Dutch Enlightenment, the establishment of a broadly Protestant governing and cultural elite, and the confessionalization of politics and even sociability in its many forms.
This paper examines the issue of confessional diversity in Dutch organized sociability during the revolutionary period. Drawing on case studies from Amsterdam, Leiden, and Nijmegen, it will trace the rise and fall of the religiously neutral model of sociability generally associated with the Enlightenment, and specifically with the revolutionary period. It will explore how within the various forms of sociability in this period, a variety of ways was developed to deal with the newly controversial fact of religious difference. The key point it makes is that the rise and fall of the confessionally neutral clubs and societies cannot be described simply as the success or failure of the discourse of tolerance, and that more attention should be given to the ability of some individuals from religious minority groups to consolidate positions of influence slowly built up during the pre-revolutionary years.
Yet, legitimate though it may be, what does it mean when we associate Hatzeld with the Radical Enlightenment? As a concept, the Radical Enlightenment proved its great merits. It has
expanded our view of the Enlightenment world and allowed us to make more sense of thinkers previously thought of as isolated curiosities, including Hatzfeld. However, recent critical
responses have emphasized that in reality, the Radical Enlightenment was a highly complex and diffuse entity. It displayed an important degree of ideological diversity, with many different coteries appropriating and reinterpreting its message for various purposes during the eighteenth century.
These critiques have become mantras of the Enlightenment studies community, giving force to the assertion that ‘Radical Enlightenment’ is an misleading concept which creates an
entity that never really existed. Some scholars have therefore reverted to arguing that there was only one Enlightenment, others wish to pragmatically abandon the concept altogether. Yet, given
the very distinct nature of radical thinking compared to the moderate wing of the Enlightenment, as well as the strong social and intellectual links between radical thinkers that various studies have shown, neither approach seems to satisfy.
This paper will present one possible path out of this discussion. Using Hatzfeld as a test case, it will explore the merits of approaching the Radical Enlightenment from the viewpoint of
radicals thinkers’ self-perception, self-styling and attitudes toward their intellectual context. How
did thinkers we would qualify as radicals conceive of themselves? Did they have a sense of belonging to a larger, cohesive movement, and did membership of any societies or clubs
influence this? Or was being a radical a rather more individual project? What ways of ‘belonging’ were there, and what factors influenced individual’s decisions to adopt or reject the
ideas we associate with the Radical Enlightenment? If documents like the Freydencker-Lexikon by Johann Anton Trinius were regarded as imperfect attempts to survey the intellectual
landscape even in their own time, what did that landscape look like for the radicals themselves?
In short, this paper outlines and examines an approach to the Radical Enlightenment from the point of view of its ‘members’, and inquires specifically what this ‘membership’ entailed.
Papers by Jordy Geerlings
Thursday 27 March 2014
Time
from 13:30 to 16:00
Location
Nijmegen, The Netherlands. Erasmusbuilding, E 20.12
Organisation
Radboud University Graduate School of Humanities
Speaker
James E Block, associate professor of political science at DePaul University in Chicago
Subtitle
Cultural and Political Transformation in the US: From the Rise of Modernity to the Post-Modern Challenge.
Description
Has America failed as a political project? Have the underlying ideals of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness proved illusory? Many commentators are increasingly answering this question in the affirmative. They refer to a growing body of evidence: a crippling national debt, the regular derailment of the democratic process in the Capitol through filibusters, the hollowing out of the state through liberalization, and the seemingly total grip of the financial sector over the political course of the country. Simultaneously, US society suffers from increasing poverty, declining quality of education and many other problems. The American Dream has been declared dead, and the post-9/11 US is being described as an empire in decline.
Yet, to what extent is this narrative of decline justified? James E Block, associate professor of political science at DePaul University in Chicago, has dedicated his scholarly career to examining the development of the political project that is the United States. He has published extensively on the origins and development of this project, focusing on the founding fathers, but also on less-known, more implicit ways in which Americans subsequently defined their national aspirations. The American project, he provocatively claims, has been defined in different ways by successive generations and was often underpinned by values rather different from the total liberty of the individual.
The loss of the modern self-confidence of the 20th century has been traumatic, but has also given space to reinterpretations of America's history, its self image(s) as a political project, and what roles the citizens can/should play. As a scholar who experienced the ferment of UC Berkeley in the 1960s, as a public interest lawyer campaigning for the rights of the criminally insane in the 1970s, and as an intellectual fascinated by grassroots political movements and utopian initiatives from the summer of 1968 to the present day Occupy Movement, Block brings a unique perspective to these issues.
Based on Professor Block's expertise, this masterclass will give particular attention to:
US Political History, Citizenship, and Democracy
Utopia and radical politics from 1968 to the Occupy Movement
US History and the politics of childhood
History of political thought in the US
The idea of decline in (US) history.
Contact
Jordy Geerlings
Email
j.geerlings@let.ru.nl
Book Reviews by Jordy Geerlings
essential factors in the dissemination of knowledge and new ideas. Additionally, sociability has been associated with the rise of the public sphere and civil society, as various societies
provided important platforms for the new bourgeois public to discuss and address the issues of the day. However, recent research has challenged these views. Historians are
increasingly finding that many societies were permeable to a variety of worldviews and practices, not all of which can be meaningfully associated with the Enlightenment. New
insights further suggest the importance of local restrictions and social conventions influencing many societies, further complicating the traditional understanding of the progressive,
enlightened nature of sociability during this period. At the same time, sociability remains an important object of research in its own right, as well as an indispensible window onto an ever increasing variety of historical phenomena. This article explores the ways in
which recent research has transformed our understanding of sociability and its place in the Enlightenment.
After joining his father in banishment in 1788, Cornelis served in various military units and came to Nijmegen in 1795. There, he became an active member of the civil militia and became involved in revolutionary politics. By the beginning of 1797, Cornelis had become director of the catholic revolutionary society 'Eendracht maakt macht'. Was briefly incarcerated for having insulted the city council on januari 21st, 1797, but was liberated soon after by a coup d'état on february 11th, and made leader of the local militia. Sought employment in The Hague in 1798. Later life unknown.
"
Le cas de Pex est une indication importante de la présence de catholiques dans la franc-maçonnerie néerlandaise, malgré les interdictions imposées par l’église catholique. Et cela fait partie d’un phénomène plus large : la participation croissante des minorités religieuses aux nouvelles formes de sociabilité dans la République néerlandaise du dix-huitième siècle. Ces minorités ont profité de la croissance extraordinaire du nombre de sociétés scientifiques, culturelles, récréatives, sociétés d’engagement social inspiré par l’idealisme des Lumières que République a connu entre 1750 et 1800. La présence de catholiques dans la sociabilité est une correction importante a l’historiographie traditionnelle, qui assume une absence (et passivité) générale de l’élite catholique dans la société civile néerlandaise.
Mais doit-on s’imaginer une histoire d’émancipation dans laquelle les minorités religieuses ont su échapper, aux restrictions imposées depuis la Reformation, grâce à ces organisations de sociabilité? Pas nécessairement! Pour le cas néerlandais, il faut encore poser une question simple, mais essentielle : combien d’individus issues de minorités religieuses ont, en fait, participé a ces organisations ? Ces sociétés, loges maçonniques, ont-ils vraiment fonctionné comme moteurs d’intégration et d’émancipation?
Voila les questions que je tenterai d’explorer dans cette communication, à partir de mes recherches sur la sociabilité des Lumières à Amsterdam, ville principale de la République sur le plan politique, économique, et démographique, et Leiden, ou siégeait la première université du pays.
But the egalitarian and tolerant idealism of the Revolution caused tensions among religious groups. Conservative Calvinists could not accept the loss of the close connection between the Calvinist church and the state and guild members feared competition from previously excluded minorities. Many historians have since claimed that these and other difficulties resulted in a closing down of the Dutch Enlightenment, the establishment of a broadly Protestant governing and cultural elite, and the confessionalization of politics and even sociability in its many forms.
This paper examines the issue of confessional diversity in Dutch organized sociability during the revolutionary period. Drawing on case studies from Amsterdam, Leiden, and Nijmegen, it will trace the rise and fall of the religiously neutral model of sociability generally associated with the Enlightenment, and specifically with the revolutionary period. It will explore how within the various forms of sociability in this period, a variety of ways was developed to deal with the newly controversial fact of religious difference. The key point it makes is that the rise and fall of the confessionally neutral clubs and societies cannot be described simply as the success or failure of the discourse of tolerance, and that more attention should be given to the ability of some individuals from religious minority groups to consolidate positions of influence slowly built up during the pre-revolutionary years.
Yet, legitimate though it may be, what does it mean when we associate Hatzeld with the Radical Enlightenment? As a concept, the Radical Enlightenment proved its great merits. It has
expanded our view of the Enlightenment world and allowed us to make more sense of thinkers previously thought of as isolated curiosities, including Hatzfeld. However, recent critical
responses have emphasized that in reality, the Radical Enlightenment was a highly complex and diffuse entity. It displayed an important degree of ideological diversity, with many different coteries appropriating and reinterpreting its message for various purposes during the eighteenth century.
These critiques have become mantras of the Enlightenment studies community, giving force to the assertion that ‘Radical Enlightenment’ is an misleading concept which creates an
entity that never really existed. Some scholars have therefore reverted to arguing that there was only one Enlightenment, others wish to pragmatically abandon the concept altogether. Yet, given
the very distinct nature of radical thinking compared to the moderate wing of the Enlightenment, as well as the strong social and intellectual links between radical thinkers that various studies have shown, neither approach seems to satisfy.
This paper will present one possible path out of this discussion. Using Hatzfeld as a test case, it will explore the merits of approaching the Radical Enlightenment from the viewpoint of
radicals thinkers’ self-perception, self-styling and attitudes toward their intellectual context. How
did thinkers we would qualify as radicals conceive of themselves? Did they have a sense of belonging to a larger, cohesive movement, and did membership of any societies or clubs
influence this? Or was being a radical a rather more individual project? What ways of ‘belonging’ were there, and what factors influenced individual’s decisions to adopt or reject the
ideas we associate with the Radical Enlightenment? If documents like the Freydencker-Lexikon by Johann Anton Trinius were regarded as imperfect attempts to survey the intellectual
landscape even in their own time, what did that landscape look like for the radicals themselves?
In short, this paper outlines and examines an approach to the Radical Enlightenment from the point of view of its ‘members’, and inquires specifically what this ‘membership’ entailed.
Thursday 27 March 2014
Time
from 13:30 to 16:00
Location
Nijmegen, The Netherlands. Erasmusbuilding, E 20.12
Organisation
Radboud University Graduate School of Humanities
Speaker
James E Block, associate professor of political science at DePaul University in Chicago
Subtitle
Cultural and Political Transformation in the US: From the Rise of Modernity to the Post-Modern Challenge.
Description
Has America failed as a political project? Have the underlying ideals of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness proved illusory? Many commentators are increasingly answering this question in the affirmative. They refer to a growing body of evidence: a crippling national debt, the regular derailment of the democratic process in the Capitol through filibusters, the hollowing out of the state through liberalization, and the seemingly total grip of the financial sector over the political course of the country. Simultaneously, US society suffers from increasing poverty, declining quality of education and many other problems. The American Dream has been declared dead, and the post-9/11 US is being described as an empire in decline.
Yet, to what extent is this narrative of decline justified? James E Block, associate professor of political science at DePaul University in Chicago, has dedicated his scholarly career to examining the development of the political project that is the United States. He has published extensively on the origins and development of this project, focusing on the founding fathers, but also on less-known, more implicit ways in which Americans subsequently defined their national aspirations. The American project, he provocatively claims, has been defined in different ways by successive generations and was often underpinned by values rather different from the total liberty of the individual.
The loss of the modern self-confidence of the 20th century has been traumatic, but has also given space to reinterpretations of America's history, its self image(s) as a political project, and what roles the citizens can/should play. As a scholar who experienced the ferment of UC Berkeley in the 1960s, as a public interest lawyer campaigning for the rights of the criminally insane in the 1970s, and as an intellectual fascinated by grassroots political movements and utopian initiatives from the summer of 1968 to the present day Occupy Movement, Block brings a unique perspective to these issues.
Based on Professor Block's expertise, this masterclass will give particular attention to:
US Political History, Citizenship, and Democracy
Utopia and radical politics from 1968 to the Occupy Movement
US History and the politics of childhood
History of political thought in the US
The idea of decline in (US) history.
Contact
Jordy Geerlings
Email
j.geerlings@let.ru.nl