A Laboratory of Liberty

The Transformation of Political Culture in Republican Switzerland, 1750-1848
Erscheinungsjahr 2011
ISBN: 978-90-04-28093-9
Verlag: Brill

Buch, Englisch, 372 Seiten, Format (B × H): 160 mm x 239 mm, Gewicht: 431 g

Looking at a series of Swiss political debates, this book offers a case study of a revolutionary transformation to a rights-based society and political culture. Based on a tradition of political innovation and experimentation, Swiss citizens recalibrated their understanding of liberty and republicanism from 1750 to 1848. The resulting hybrid political culture centered around republican ideas, changing understandings of liberty and self-rule. Drawing from the public political debates in three characteristic cantons, A Laboratory of Liberty places the Swiss transformation into a European context. Current trends in Revolutionary studies focus on the revolution in its global context and this book demonstrates that the Swiss case enhances our understanding of the debates over the nature of liberty in the transatlantic world during the Age of Revolution.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Lerner, Marc

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Geschichte einzelner Länder Europäische Länder
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Europäische Geschichte
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politikwissenschaft Allgemein Politische Geschichte

Inhaltsverzeichnis

List of Maps. ix
List of Abbreviations. xi
Acknowledgments. xiii

Introduction. 1

PART ONE
THE END OF THE OLD REGIME IN EUROPE AND IN THE SWISS EIDGENOSSENSCHAFT
Chapter One: On the Ideological Origins of the Revolution in Switzerland. 29
Chapter Two: Ambivalent Revolutionaries: The Helvetic Republic in Revolutionary Europe. 75

PART TWO
REGENERATION OF A CONSTRUCTED PAST:

CONTINUITIES AND DISCONTINUITIES IN THE STRUGGLE BETWEEN OLD AND NEW VISIONS OF SWITZERLAND AND EUROPE

Chapter Three: The Right to Self-Rule: The Debate over Legitimacy and the Vaud-Bern Relationship. 137
Chapter Four: Two Visions of Political Society in Inner Switzerland, 1829–33. 167
Chapter Five: Popular Sovereignty in the Züriputsch. 221

PART THREE
NATIONAL ACCOMMODATION

Chapter Six: Radical Conceptions of the Confederation: Popular Sovereignty and the 1845 Revolution in Vaud. 265
Chapter Seven: War, Accommodation, and the Making of the Modern Constitutional State. 289

Conclusion. 321
Bibliography. 327
Index. 349

Über Autor(innen)

Marc H. Lerner, Ph. D. (2003) in History, Columbia University, is Associate Professor of History at the University of Mississippi, where he has been teaching since 2005. His research interests are focused on revolutionary Europe in comparative perspective, republicanism, democracy and the transition to political modernity.