Catherine Tourangeau - Profile on Academia.edu (original) (raw)
I'm currently working as SSHRC postdoctoral researcher at McGill University, working on the history of fame and on the impact of smallpox inoculation campaigns on the idea of public health in the long 18th century. I obtained my PhD from Yale University earlier this year. My dissertation studied the evolution of associational practices in the British Atlantic, and through them shed light on the cultural and institutional origins of the activism that fuelled the great social and political movements of the "Age of Reform." My project reflected on the role of transatlantic communication networks in shaping the public sphere of improvement that was fostered through the activities of clubs, societies, and associations of all kinds.
Dans mes temps libres, je suis la "Petite historienne" et j'opère un blogue sur la "petite histoire". C'est en français--sorry, not sorry!
https://lapetitehistoire358616568.wordpress.com/
Supervisors: Steven Pincus and Brian Cowan
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The early 19 th-century poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge called his friend Thomas Clarkson the "moral... more The early 19 th-century poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge called his friend Thomas Clarkson the "moral steam-engine" of British abolitionism. Clarkson had played a key role in the campaign to abolish the slave trade, which had started in 1787 and ended with the Abolition Act of 1807, and continued to be actively involved in the ongoing antislavery movement of the 1820s and 30s. He was also the author of the first ever history of British abolition. To Coleridge and his contemporaries, living in the heyday of the Industrial Revolution, Clarkson did indeed take the traits of a metaphorical steam-engine. But such individualized interpretations of British abolitionism and of social movements in general, popular though they still remained, hide a much more important history of association, mobilization, and cooperation.
Radical political ideas were not a novelty in 18 th -century Britain. For decades, they had lived... more Radical political ideas were not a novelty in 18 th -century Britain. For decades, they had lived in the public sphere of print and fueled coffeehouse debates. But they definitely gained a greater purchase in the aftermath of the Seven Years' War, when they were taken over by voluntary associations specifically dedicated to political reform. The rise of radical clubs and societies, and their dispersion across the Atlantic, was so significant that in the 1790s it even led the government of Pitt the Younger to adopt a series of punitive measures restricting the freedom of speech and assembly-measures that were not to be repealed before the 1820s.
Charity remained the preserve of the state, the Church, or a combination of both across most of E... more Charity remained the preserve of the state, the Church, or a combination of both across most of Europe in the 18 th century. In Britain, and soon across the British Atlantic, however, charitable giving was increasingly performed by clubs, societies, and associations operating outside the purview of these traditional dispensers of relief. This "associational turn" in British charity has attracted the attention of numerous scholars.
The early 19 th-century poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge called his friend Thomas Clarkson the "moral... more The early 19 th-century poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge called his friend Thomas Clarkson the "moral steam-engine" of British abolitionism. Clarkson had played a key role in the campaign to abolish the slave trade, which had started in 1787 and ended with the Abolition Act of 1807, and continued to be actively involved in the ongoing antislavery movement of the 1820s and 30s. He was also the author of the first ever history of British abolition. To Coleridge and his contemporaries, living in the heyday of the Industrial Revolution, Clarkson did indeed take the traits of a metaphorical steam-engine. But such individualized interpretations of British abolitionism and of social movements in general, popular though they still remained, hide a much more important history of association, mobilization, and cooperation.
Radical political ideas were not a novelty in 18 th -century Britain. For decades, they had lived... more Radical political ideas were not a novelty in 18 th -century Britain. For decades, they had lived in the public sphere of print and fueled coffeehouse debates. But they definitely gained a greater purchase in the aftermath of the Seven Years' War, when they were taken over by voluntary associations specifically dedicated to political reform. The rise of radical clubs and societies, and their dispersion across the Atlantic, was so significant that in the 1790s it even led the government of Pitt the Younger to adopt a series of punitive measures restricting the freedom of speech and assembly-measures that were not to be repealed before the 1820s.
Charity remained the preserve of the state, the Church, or a combination of both across most of E... more Charity remained the preserve of the state, the Church, or a combination of both across most of Europe in the 18 th century. In Britain, and soon across the British Atlantic, however, charitable giving was increasingly performed by clubs, societies, and associations operating outside the purview of these traditional dispensers of relief. This "associational turn" in British charity has attracted the attention of numerous scholars.