The McNeil Center for Early American Studies hosted a plenary panel about the role of books during major revolutions on Thursday.
The April 9 event was moderated by Penn professor Sophia Rosenfeld and kicked off a three-day conference — titled “The Revolutionary Age: France, Haiti, and America.” Penn professor Roger Chartier, Harvard University professor emeritus Robert Darnton, and Fordham University professor Jordan Alexander Stein discussed the bidirectional relationship between books and revolutions.
Darnton explained that the plenary intended to launch “wonderfully original, new, and concrete discussions that will really advance knowledge” in an interview with The Daily Pennsylvanian.
“It’s terribly important for people to understand how information flows, how public opinion is formed, and how citizens participate in civic life,” he added.
The panel began with a welcome from McNeil Center director Emma Hart and Sean Quimby, the Associate Vice Provost and Director at Penn’s Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts. The event, held at the Kislak Center, also included a question and answer session.
The three panelists presented historical texts written by various philosophers and historians during the revolutionary period.
Darnton highlighted the “topical” nature of the conference occurring ahead of the United States’ 250th anniversary, adding that the session aimed to consider whether books “cause revolutions or make revolutions.”
In addition to the historical timing of the event, Darnton told the DP that modern day “public concern with the media — especially social media and the formation of public opinion — or the dispersion and polarization of a public opinion,” makes this event interesting.
RELATED:
McNeil Center Consortium fellow researches English literature in the Black Atlantic World
Here’s how Penn plans to celebrate America’s 250th anniversary
“Behind these studies about particular historical subjects is a much larger general issue that I think the public is facing,” he added.
Stein expressed that “was very happy to be on this panel and be in this conversation” because of the long-lasting importance of the session’s questions.
“If history wasn’t important, there wouldn’t be an assault on it,” he added. “The idea that history has interpretation — there’s different ways to understand the same evidences and events — is a point that not all people understand, but a point that’s really worth emphasizing.”
During the panel, Chartier expressed that the discussion holds a modern-day relevance.
“I consider that the relation between books and revolution has both a historical and historiographical claim,” he said.
The actors during the revolution “composed successive repertoire of the writers and the books that have made possible the radical rupture of 1789,” Chartier added, pointing to the historical impact of books.
Chartier pointed to Alexis de Tocqueville’s writing about the French Revolution in 1856 as an example of the historiographical impact of books. Moments where “literary propensities were imported into the political arena,” shaping “national temperament and outlook on life,” highlight their impact on how revolutions were interpreted.
“Do books make revolutions, or do revolutions make books? To the best of my understanding, the answer is both,” Stein concluded during the panel.
