Volney

'The Ruins' and 'Catechism of Natural Law'
Erscheinungsjahr 2024
ISBN: 978-1-108-49310-9
Verlag: Cambridge University Press

Buch, Englisch, 249 Seiten, Format (B × H): 140 mm x 216 mm, Gewicht: 458 g

Reihe: Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought

Volney was once as influential as Tom Paine, and the author of one of the most popular works of the French Revolutionary era. The Ruins of Empires makes an argument for popular sovereignty, couched in the alluring and accessible form of an Oriental dream-tale. A favourite of both Thomas Jefferson, who translated it, and the young Abraham Lincoln, the Ruins advances a scheme of radical, utopian politics premised upon the deconstruction of all the world's religions. It was widely celebrated by radicals in Britain and America, and exercised an enormous influence on poets from Percy Bysshe Shelley to Walt Whitman for its indictments of tyranny and priestcraft. Volney instead advocates a return to natural precepts shorn of superstition, set out in his sequel, the Catechism of Natural Law. These days Volney enjoys a high profile in African-American Studies as a proponent of Black Egyptianism.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Volney, Constantin

Weitere Mitwirkende

Kidd, Colin

Kidd, Lucy

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Translators' preface; Introduction; Chronology of Volney's life; Further reading; Biographical notes; The Ruins; Catechism of Natural Law; Appendix I. Volney's endnotes and sources; Appendix II. Volney's Black Egyptianist passages; Appendix III. Significant textual variants; Index.

Über Autor(innen)

Kidd, Colin
Colin Kidd is Wardlaw Professor of Modern History at the University of St Andrews. Brought up in the west of Scotland, he was educated at Cambridge, Harvard and Oxford, where he was a Fellow of All Souls between 1987 and 1994, and again from 2005 to 2019. He has been a regular contributor to the London Review of Books, New Statesman and Guardian. He is a Fellow of the British Academy and the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and was awarded an OBE in the 2023 New Year Honours List.

Kidd, Lucy
Lucy Kidd is a former writer, who published three romantic novels, one historical, earlier in her career. Born in the United States, she was educated at Harvard University and the Université Paul Valéry, Montpellier. More recently, she has worked in Scotland in the TEFL/TESL sector. Her interests are in music, literature and modern languages.