TABLE OF CONTENTS: List of Illustrations vii
Acknowledgements ix
Abbreviations and a Note on Translations xi
Chapter 1: Introduction: "One of the Most Interesting Pairs of Breeches Recorded in Modern History" 1
Chapter 2: An Ingenious Emblem 57
New Year's Gifts and an Eighteenth-Century French Joke 57
Fashion's Empire: The Moral Foundations of Salon Society 77
A "Poor Devil": The Short, Unhappy Life of Nicolas-Joseph-Laurent Gilbert 101
Mercier and Rousseau: Vitalist and Contractual Conceptions of Political Society 110
Chapter 3: Diogenes and Rousseau: Music, Morality, and Society 134
Diogenes and the Ambiguities of Cynic Philosophy 134
Jean-Jacques Rousseau and the Politics of Public Opinion 147
Rousseau and His Cynic Critics 164
John Brown and the Progress of Civilisation 178
"That Subtle Diogenes": Immanuel Kant and Rousseau's Dilemmas 195
Chapter 4: Property, Equality, and the Passions in Eighteenth-Century French Thought 202
Reform, Revolution, and the Problem of State Power 202
Property and the Limits of State Power 221
Physiocracy, Reform, and the Fruits of the Tree of Life 248
John Law's Legacy and the Aftermath of Physiocracy 260
Dominique-Joseph Garat, the Modern Idea of Happiness, and the Dilemmas of Reform 273
Chapter 5: The Entitlements of Merit 283
Visions of Patriotism 283
The Army and Its Problems in the Eighteenth Century 288
Constitutional Government, Taxation, and Equality 296
Political Liberty, Public Finance, and Public Worship 305
Etienne Clavière, Law's System, and French Liberty 315
Feuillants and Brissotins 324
Antoine-Joseph Gorsas and the Politics of Revolutionary Satire 338
Chapter 6: Conclusion: Democracy and Terror 362
Politics and History in Jacobin Thought 362
Rousseau and Revolution 367
Mably, Rousseau, and Robespierre 372
Epilogue 407
Bibliography 425
Index 475
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