Author Meets Critics: Genevieve Rousseliere’s "Sharing Freedom"

Session Submission Type: Author meet critics

Session Description

The French think of themselves as champions of universal emancipation. Yet the republicanism they adopted has often been exclusionary – of women, foreigners, and religious and ethnic minorities. Can republicanism be an attractive alternative to liberalism, communism, and communitarianism, or is it fundamentally flawed?

This panel explores these themes by debating Genevieve Rousseliere’s new work: Sharing Freedom (Cambridge, 2024). In addition to Rousseliere (Duke University), the panel includes commentary from leading scholars: Jennifer Pitts (University of Chicago), Alex Gourevitch (Brown University), Lucia Rubinelli (Yale) and Frank Lovett (WashU).

Sharing Freedom traces the development of republicanism from an older elitist theory of freedom into an inclusive theory of emancipation during the French Revolution. It uncovers the theoretical innovations of Rousseau and of revolutionaries such as Sieyès, Robespierre, Condorcet, and Grouchy. Without shying from French republicanism’s theoretical shortcomings, Sharing Freedom offers a wholly original reconstruction of the ideal of liberty.

Sharing Freedom examines how French republicans struggled to adapt republicanism to the new circumstances of a large and diverse France, full of poor and dependent individuals with little education or experience of freedom. Analyzing the argumentative logic that led republicans to justify the exclusion of many, this book renews the republican tradition and connects it with the enduring issues of colonialism, immigration, slavery, poverty and gender.

Sub Unit

• Division 1: Political Thought and Philosophy

Chair

• Alexander Kirshner Duke University

Presenters

• Genevieve Rousseliere Duke University

• Jennifer Pitts University of Chicago

• Alexander H. Gourevitch Brown University

• Lucia Rubinelli Yale University

• Frank Lovett Washington University in St. Louis