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Stuff and Money in the Time of the French Revolution / Rebecca L. Spang.

By: Material type: TextTextPublisher: Cambridge, MA : Harvard University Press, [2015]Copyright date: ©2015Description: 1 online resource (348 p.) : 26 halftonesContent type:
Media type:
Carrier type:
ISBN:
  • 9780674047037
  • 9780674736146
Subject(s): DDC classification:
  • 332.4/94409033 23
Other classification:
  • online - DeGruyter
Online resources: Available additional physical forms:
  • Issued also in print.
Contents:
Frontmatter -- Contents -- List of Illustrations -- Introduction: Money and Stuff -- 1. The Time of the Debt -- 2. The Money of Liberty -- 3. Making Money -- 4. Liberty of Money -- 5. Civil Wars in France -- 6. The Revolution That Would Not End -- 7. Taking the Old Regime out of Circulation -- Conclusion: Money and History -- List of Abbreviations -- Notes -- Acknowledgments -- Index
Summary: Rebecca L. Spang, who revolutionized our understanding of the restaurant, has written a new history of money. It uses one of the most infamous examples of monetary innovation, the assignats-a currency initially defined by French revolutionaries as "circulating land"-to demonstrate that money is as much a social and political mediator as it is an economic instrument. Following the assignats from creation to abandonment, Spang shows them to be subject to the same slippages between policies and practice, intentions and outcomes, as other human inventions. But Spang's book is also a new history of the French Revolution, one in which radicalization was driven by an ever-widening gap between political ideals and the realities of daily life. Money played a critical role in creating this gulf. Wed to the idea that liberty required economic deregulation as well as political freedom, revolutionary legislators extended the notion of free trade to include "freedom of money." The consequences were disastrous. Backed neither by the weight of tradition nor by the state that issued them, the assignats could not be a functioning currency. Ever reluctant to interfere in the workings of the market, lawmakers thought changes to the material form of the assignats should suffice to enhance their credibility. Their hopes were disappointed, and the Revolution spiraled out of control. Stuff and Money in the Time of the French Revolution restores economics, in the broadest sense, to its rightful place at the heart of the Revolution and hence to that of modern politics.
Holdings
Item type Current library Call number URL Status Notes Barcode
eBook eBook Biblioteca "Angelicum" Pont. Univ. S.Tommaso d'Aquino Nuvola online online - DeGruyter (Browse shelf(Opens below)) Online access Not for loan (Accesso limitato) Accesso per gli utenti autorizzati / Access for authorized users (dgr)9780674736146

Frontmatter -- Contents -- List of Illustrations -- Introduction: Money and Stuff -- 1. The Time of the Debt -- 2. The Money of Liberty -- 3. Making Money -- 4. Liberty of Money -- 5. Civil Wars in France -- 6. The Revolution That Would Not End -- 7. Taking the Old Regime out of Circulation -- Conclusion: Money and History -- List of Abbreviations -- Notes -- Acknowledgments -- Index

restricted access online access with authorization star

http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_16ec

Rebecca L. Spang, who revolutionized our understanding of the restaurant, has written a new history of money. It uses one of the most infamous examples of monetary innovation, the assignats-a currency initially defined by French revolutionaries as "circulating land"-to demonstrate that money is as much a social and political mediator as it is an economic instrument. Following the assignats from creation to abandonment, Spang shows them to be subject to the same slippages between policies and practice, intentions and outcomes, as other human inventions. But Spang's book is also a new history of the French Revolution, one in which radicalization was driven by an ever-widening gap between political ideals and the realities of daily life. Money played a critical role in creating this gulf. Wed to the idea that liberty required economic deregulation as well as political freedom, revolutionary legislators extended the notion of free trade to include "freedom of money." The consequences were disastrous. Backed neither by the weight of tradition nor by the state that issued them, the assignats could not be a functioning currency. Ever reluctant to interfere in the workings of the market, lawmakers thought changes to the material form of the assignats should suffice to enhance their credibility. Their hopes were disappointed, and the Revolution spiraled out of control. Stuff and Money in the Time of the French Revolution restores economics, in the broadest sense, to its rightful place at the heart of the Revolution and hence to that of modern politics.

Issued also in print.

Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.

In English.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 30. Aug 2021)