The Culture of Merit: Nobility, Royal Service, and the Making of Absolute Monarchy in France, 1600-1789University of Michigan Press, 1996 - 305 páginas The eighteenth century's critique of privilege and its commitment to the idea of advancement by merit are widely regarded as sources of modernity. But if meritocratic values were indeed the product of the Enlightenment and the French Revolution, how do we explain earlier attention to merit--especially the nobility whose values the Revolution rejected? The Culture of Merit probes this paradox by analyzing changing perceptions of merit among the old nobility from the age of Louis XIII to the eve of the French Revolution. Jay M. Smith argues that the early modern nobility instinctively drew a correlation between the meaning of merit and an image of the "sovereign's gaze." In the early seventeenth century, merit meant the qualities traditionally associated with aristocratic values: generosity, fidelity, and honor. Nobles sought to display those qualities before the appreciative gaze of the king himself. But the expansion of the monarchy forced the routinization of the sovereign's gaze, and Louis XIV began to affirm and reward new qualities--talent and application--besides those thought innately noble. The contradictions implicit within the absolute monarchy's culture of merit are demonstrated by the eighteenth-century French army, which was dominated by the nobility, but also committed to efficiency and expertise. Smith shows that the army's continuous efforts to encourage and reward "merit" led to a clash of principles. The ever-growing emphasis on talent and discipline led reformers--the great majority of them noble--to attack the most egregious examples of privilege and favoritism in the army. Smith's analysis of the long-term evolution in conceptions of royal service suggests a new explanation for the shift in values signified by the French Revolution. The transition away from the "personal" gaze of the king toward the "public" gaze of the monarchy and nation foretold the triumph of a new culture of merit in which noble birth would have no meaning. The Culture of Merit will interest historians and other social scientists concerned with issues of aristocratic identity, state formation, professionalization, and the changing political culture of pre-Revolutionary France. Jay M. Smith is Assistant Professor of History, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. |
Índice
Merit Nobility and the French State | 1 |
in the Age of Louis XIII | 93 |
Merit Service | 125 |
Extending the Sovereigns Gaze in | 191 |
the Gaze of Sovereignty | 263 |
Otras ediciones - Ver todo
The Culture of Merit: Nobility, Royal Service, and the Making of Absolute ... Jay M. Smith Vista de fragmentos - 1996 |
Términos y frases comunes
absolute monarchy Académie Française ancien régime Antoine Antoine de Chabannes Antoine Furetière aristocratic army assumptions birth Cahiers particuliers Chevalier Colbert Conseil corps Cour courage court courtiers crown culture culture of merit discipline discourse duel Early Modern France early-modern eighteenth century Estates example fidelity Française François French French nobility Fronde Furetière Généalogie genealogies généalogique generosity gentilshommes gift Guerre Historique honor Ibid implied king king's later seventeenth century lieutenant Louis XIII Louis XIV Louis's Louvois maison maréchal Mazarin Mémoires Militaire military minister modality of service monarchy's Montchrétien nobility's nobles noblesse officers old nobility one's Ordonnances Paris Parlement personal modality political Politique prince Princeton profession qualities rank realm recherches recognized reform régime regiment Règlement reward Richelieu Roger Chartier royal service served Seventeenth-Century France social society sovereign's gaze status talents third estate tion traditional trans Turquet de Mayerne valor Vauban venality virtue vols XIV's XVIIIe siècle
Referencias a este libro
The Jesuits and the Monarchy: Catholic Reform and Political Authority in ... Eric Nelson No hay ninguna vista previa disponible - 2005 |