A laboratory of liberty : the transformation of political culture in republican Switzerland, 1750-1848

Author/Creator:

Lerner, Marc H.

Publication/Creation:

Leiden : Brill, 2012

Resource Type:

Book

More Details

Additional/Related Title Information

Full Title:

A laboratory of liberty : the transformation of political culture in republican Switzerland, 1750-1848 / Marc H. Lerner

Series Titles:

Studies in Central European histories, v. 54
Studies in Central European histories ; 54.

Subjects/Genre

Subjects:

Political culture--Switzerland--History--18th century
Political culture--Switzerland--History--19th century
Liberty--Political aspects--Switzerland--History
Republicanism--Switzerland--History
Self-determination, National--Switzerland--History
Revolutions--Switzerland--History
Social change--Switzerland--History
Switzerland--Politics and government--18th century
Switzerland--Politics and government--19th century
Switzerland--Social conditions

Description/Summary

Table of Contents:

pt. 1. The end of the Old Regime in Europe and in the Swiss Eidgenossenschaft -- On the ideological origins of the revolution in Switzerland -- Ambivalent revolutionaries : the Helvetic Republic in revolutionary Europe -- pt. 2. Regeneration of a constructed past : continuities and discontinuities in the struggle between old and new visions of Switzerland and Europe -- The right to self-rule : the debate over legitimacy and the Vaud-Bern relationship -- Two visions of political society in inner Switzerland, 1829-33 -- Popular sovereignty in the Zuriputsch -- pt. 3. National accommodation -- Radical conceptions of the Confederation : popular sovereignty and the 1845 revolution in Vaud -- War, accommodation, and the making of the modern constitutional state.

Summary:

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.

Language:

English

Language Note:

English

Physical Type/Description:

1 online resource (xvi, 371 pages) : maps

General Note:

Description based upon print version of record.

Additional Identifiers

Catalog ID (MMSID):

9936716231202486

ISBN:

1-283-31072-4
9786613310729
90-04-21464-X

OCLC Number:

758335982
775792138

Other Identifiers:

DOI: 10.1163/9789004214644