Whatmore, Richard (2012) Against war and empire: Geneva, Britain and France in the eighteenth century. Lewis Walpole series in eighteenth-century culture and history . Yale University Press, New Haven. ISBN 9780300175578

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Abstract

As Britain and France became more powerful during the eighteenth century, small states such as Geneva could no longer stand militarily against these commercial monarchies. Furthermore, many Genevans felt that they were being drawn into a corrupt commercial world dominated by amoral aristocrats dedicated to the unprincipled pursuit of wealth.

In this book Richard Whatmore presents an intellectual history of republicans who strove to ensure Geneva's survival as an independent state. Whatmore shows how the Genevan republicans grappled with the ideas of Rousseau, Voltaire, Bentham, and others in seeking to make modern Europe safe for small states, by vanquishing the threats presented by war and empire. The Genevan attempt to moralize the commercial world, and align national self-interest with perpetual peace and the abandonment of empire, had implications for the French Revolution, the British Empire, and the identity of modern Europe.

Item Type:	Book
Schools and Departments:	School of History, Art History and Philosophy > History
Subjects:	D History General and Old World > DA History of Great Britain D History General and Old World > DC History of France D History General and Old World > DQ History of Switzerland
Depositing User:	Fiona Allan
Date Deposited:	16 May 2012 10:46
Last Modified:	17 Sep 2012 12:07
URI:	http://srodev.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/39306

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