Jay Eisenberg | Drew University (original) (raw)
Author of "John Stuart Mill on History: Human Nature, Progress, and the Stationary State"
https://www.amazon.com/John-Stuart-Mill-History-Stationary/dp/1498563953/ref=tmm\_hrd\_swatch\_0?\_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=
Address: Maplewood, New Jersey, United States
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Papers by Jay Eisenberg
How do we determine whether an event, or a person or group, or a pattern of behavior has historic... more How do we determine whether an event, or a person or group, or a pattern of behavior has historical significance? What are the sources of significance, and to whom? The term itself is used routinely in all kinds of contexts. The first five listings in a JSTOR search reveal scholarly articles on the historical significance of the Joe Camel advertisements, the counter-tenor, the Macedonian 'royal style,' Pablo Sarasate, and economic voting patterns between 1872 and 1996. 1 We routinely hear historians and media pundits pronounce on the historical significance of the September 11 attacks and, most recently, health care reform. As clear-cut as the difference appears now, who is to say that in the future, historians will not judge Joe Camel as more important than 9/11? After all, our current understanding of French history is said to have been deeply enriched by the trial of an imposter in sixteenth century Toulouse. Who would have guessed that a cat massacre by printing apprentices and journeymen in eighteenth century Paris would have excited historical imaginations in the late twentieth century? The range of topics considered in our seminar only gives more urgency to this 1
We will start with the victims. It is generally estimated that a half-million Frenchmen died as a... more We will start with the victims. It is generally estimated that a half-million Frenchmen died as a result of the French Revolution. Of these, approximately 200,000 deaths resulted from the war with the European alliance in defense of Republican France against its foreign enemies. Another 200,000 died as a result of conflicts within France itself: the civil war in the Vendée (which alone accounted for over 100,000); the recapturing of Lyon, Marseilles, Toulon and other cities controlled by the Federalists; and the defeat of the Chouan insurrection in Brittany and Normandy. Perhaps half of these deaths were also on behalf of the Revolution against its domestic enemies. In the aftermath of the civil conflicts, military tribunals and executions of captured rebels-in-arms dispatched perhaps an additional 40,000. Tens of thousands more died from the inevitable results of war: starvation, disease, exposure and neglect in captivity. 1 Within this environment of carnage, there were 17,000 executions as a consequence of verdicts by the Revolutionary Tribunals and other civil juridical institutions, less than 5% of all French fatalities in the decade following 1789. 2 As William Doyle has pointed out, even if one were to
How do we determine whether an event, or a person or group, or a pattern of behavior has historic... more How do we determine whether an event, or a person or group, or a pattern of behavior has historical significance? What are the sources of significance, and to whom? The term itself is used routinely in all kinds of contexts. The first five listings in a JSTOR search reveal scholarly articles on the historical significance of the Joe Camel advertisements, the counter-tenor, the Macedonian 'royal style,' Pablo Sarasate, and economic voting patterns between 1872 and 1996. 1 We routinely hear historians and media pundits pronounce on the historical significance of the September 11 attacks and, most recently, health care reform. As clear-cut as the difference appears now, who is to say that in the future, historians will not judge Joe Camel as more important than 9/11? After all, our current understanding of French history is said to have been deeply enriched by the trial of an imposter in sixteenth century Toulouse. Who would have guessed that a cat massacre by printing apprentices and journeymen in eighteenth century Paris would have excited historical imaginations in the late twentieth century? The range of topics considered in our seminar only gives more urgency to this 1
We will start with the victims. It is generally estimated that a half-million Frenchmen died as a... more We will start with the victims. It is generally estimated that a half-million Frenchmen died as a result of the French Revolution. Of these, approximately 200,000 deaths resulted from the war with the European alliance in defense of Republican France against its foreign enemies. Another 200,000 died as a result of conflicts within France itself: the civil war in the Vendée (which alone accounted for over 100,000); the recapturing of Lyon, Marseilles, Toulon and other cities controlled by the Federalists; and the defeat of the Chouan insurrection in Brittany and Normandy. Perhaps half of these deaths were also on behalf of the Revolution against its domestic enemies. In the aftermath of the civil conflicts, military tribunals and executions of captured rebels-in-arms dispatched perhaps an additional 40,000. Tens of thousands more died from the inevitable results of war: starvation, disease, exposure and neglect in captivity. 1 Within this environment of carnage, there were 17,000 executions as a consequence of verdicts by the Revolutionary Tribunals and other civil juridical institutions, less than 5% of all French fatalities in the decade following 1789. 2 As William Doyle has pointed out, even if one were to