Deux légitimations historiques de la société française au XVIIIe siècle : Mably et Boulainvilliers - article ; n°3 ; vol.34, pg 438-450

Annales. Économies, Sociétés, Civilisations - Année 1979 - Volume 34 - Numéro 3 - Pages 438-450
Two ways of legitimizing French society in the 18th century : Mably and Boulainvilliers
The purpose of the article is to compare the descriptions and analyses of the history of France written at the beginning and end of the 18th century by Boulainvilliers and Mably. The aristocratic interpretation of the first author seems totally opposed to the democratic theory of the second. But in reality both historians use the same conceptual elements, drawn from the enlightened milieux of the period : Germanic invasions, formation of the nation, the traditional liberties periodically reaffirmed in the Champs de mai, the contract binding nation and monarchy together. Thus the growth of civil society, its movement toward the seizure of power which emerges openly in the reign of Louis XIV, is explained in one case as the revival of aristocratic prerogatives, in the other as the just rights of the Third Estate.
13 pages
Source : Persée ; Ministère de la jeunesse, de l’éducation nationale et de la recherche, Direction de l’enseignement supérieur, Sous-direction des bibliothèques et de la documentation.