A Republic of Sympathy

Préface
Explores the shifting thought and practice of French Revolutionary political philosopher and activist Sophie de Grouchy.

Auteur
Kathleen McCrudden Illert is a Visiting Max Weber Fellow at the European University Institute. Her particular research interests lie in the political thought of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Europe, and in exploring the activities of figures who are underrepresented in traditional philosophical canons. McCrudden Illert has previously contributed articles in journals including French History.

Texte du rabat

Sophie de Grouchy was a political philosopher and activist at the centre of Revolutionary events in France between 1789 and 1815. Examining Grouchy's intellectual collaboration and significance among her contemporaries, Kathleen McCrudden Illert demonstrates how Grouchy developed a unique political philosophy centred upon sympathy.

Résumé
Sophie de Grouchy was a political philosopher and activist practising at the centre of Revolutionary events in France between 1789 and 1815. Despite this, her contributions to the development of political thought are often overlooked, with Grouchy commonly falling under the shadow of her husband Nicolas de Caritat, the marquis de Condorcet. A Republic of Sympathy instead situates Grouchy as a significant figure among her contemporaries, offering the first complete exploration of her shifting thought and practice across this period of societal upheaval. Kathleen McCrudden Illert analyses texts newly attributed to Grouchy and examines her intellectual collaborations, demonstrating how Grouchy continued to develop a unique philosophy which placed sympathy as the glue between the individual and the political community. The study also explores Grouchy's connections with her peers and interlocutors, from Adam Smith and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, to Thomas Paine and Jacques Pierre Brissot. In doing so, it argues powerfully for Grouchy's reintegration into the history of European political thought.

Contenu
Introduction; 1. The letters, 1786; 2. The wheel, 1785-9; 3. The revolution, 1789-1793; 4. The republic, 1791-93; 5. The publication, 1794-9; 6. The mask, 1799-1804; 7. The poet, 1804-10; 8. The thread, 1798-1815; Conclusion; Appendix: attributions; Bibliography; Index.