Vysokova V. V., Shunina Z. S.

English radicals, the French Revolution and Edmund Burke: polemics in The Analytical Review. Pp. 52–61.

UDC 070(09)

DOI 10.37724/RSU.2024.83.2.005

 

Abstract. The article examines the ideological struggle around E. Burke’s work Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790) on the pages of the radical periodical The Analytical Review. Thirty-eight responses published in the first three years after the publication of Burke’s book were identified and analyzed. It was established that all the reviews were definitely critical of the philosopher’s ideas; they praised and welcomed the revolutionary events in France. It was revealed that this discursive field was formed in a comparative manner: transformations of the political system in France were constantly compared with the state of affairs in the United Kingdom. At the center of the controversy there were such fundamentally important issues as hereditary power, aristocratic privileges, human rights, the right of the people to resist, etc. A significant part of these responses and reviews were associated with the publication of works on the French Revolution by other radical thinkers: T. Payne, M. Wollstonecraft, J. Mackintosh, where Burke’s “retrograde” ideas were contrasted with the thinking of these “progressive thinkers.” We see that all the reviews were anonymous. The authors of the present article came to the conclusion about the significance of the periodical edition as a “podium” for expression of English radicals of late 18th century and showed the ideological heterogeneity of this intellectual environment, and also explained their consolidation on the pages of The Analytical Review by the commercial success of the publication under the leadership of J. Johnson.

 

Keywords: The Analytical Review, English radicals, James Mackintosh, Joseph Johnson, Catherine Macaulay, Mary Wollstonecraft, Richard Price, Thomas Paine, French Revolution, Edmund Burke.

 

Bibliography

 

  1. Burke E. Razmyshleniya o revolyutsii vo Frantsii [Reflections on the revolution in France]. Trans. from Engl. by S. Wexler; ed. by A. Babich. L., Overseas Publ. Interchange Ltd, 1992, 413 p. (In Russian).
  2. Burke E. Razmyshleniya o revolyutsii vo Frantsii [Reflections on the revolution in France]. Prepared by S. Ya. Karp. Moscow, Ladomir Publ., Nauka Publ., 2023, 512 p. (In Russian).
  3. Pocock D. G. A. Burke and the ancient constitution: on an issue in the history of ideas. Zhurnal Vysshey shkoly ekonomiki[Philosophy. Journal of the Higher School of Economics]. 2018, vol. II, iss. 5, pp. 141–170. (In Russian).
  4. Chudinov A.V. Razmyshleniya anglichan o Frantsuzskoy revolyutsii: E. Berk, Dzh. Makintosh, U. Godvin [Reflections of British authors on the French Revolution: E. Burke, J. Mackintosh, W. Godwin]. Moscow, Pamyatniki ist. mysli , 1996, 304 p.
  5. Andrews S. The British Periodical Press and the French Revolution, 1789–99. NY, Palgrave, 2000, 291 p.
  6. Armitage D. Edmund Burke and Reason of State. Journal of the History of Ideas. 2000, iss. 61 (4), pp. 617–634.
  7. Burke E. Reflections on the Revolution in France., James Dodsley Pall Mall, 1790, 356 p.
  8. Décret du 12 septembre 1790. Catalogue general des assignats français. URL : https://assignat.fr/3-loi/loi-1790-09-12 (accessed: 20.10.2023). (In French).
  9. Greenblatt S. The Norton Anthology of English Literature: The Romantic Period. NY, W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2012, 1152 p.
  10. Keen P. The Crisis of Literature in the 1790s: Print Culture and the Public Sphere. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1999, 299 p.
  11. Lock F. P. Edmund Burke. Vol. II (1784–1797). Oxford, Clarendon Press, 2006, 648 p.
  12. Macaulay C. The history of England from the accession of James I to that of the Brunswick line. for J. Nourse, Bookseller to his Majesty, in the Strand; R. and J. Dodsley, in Pall-mall, and W. Johnston, in Ludgate-street, vols. 1–VIII, 1763–1783.
  13. Mackintosh J. Vindiciæ Gallicæ: A Defence of the French Revolution and its English admirers against the accusations of the Right Hon. Edmund Burke, including some strictures on the late production of Mons de Calonne. Print. for G. G. J., J. Robinson, Paternoster-Row, 1791, 351 p.
  14. O’Gorman F. Edmund Burke. His political Philosophy. Bloomington, Indiana University Press, 1973, 153 p.
  15. Oliver S. Silencing Joseph Johnson and the “Analytical Review”. The Wordsworth Circle. 2009, vol. 40, iss. 2/3, pp. 96–102.
  16. Price R. A discourse on the love of our country delivered on Nov. 4, 1789, at the meetinghouse in the Old Jewry, to the Society for commemorating the revolution in Great Britain. With an appendix, containing the report of the committee of the Society. L., Edward E. Powars, 1789, 76 p.
  17. Prior J. A Life of Edmund Burke. L., G. Bell & Sons, 1891, 545 p.
  18. Reflections on the Revolution in France. A Critical Edition. by J. C. D. Clark. Stanford, Stanford University Press, 2001, 448 p.
  19. Roper D. Reviewing before the Edinburgh. L., Methuen and Co., 1978, 313 p.
  20. The Analytical Review. Hathi Trust. URL : https://catalog.hathitrust.org/api/volumes/oclc/1481081.html (accessed: 15.08.2023).
  21. The correspondence of Edmund Burke. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1970, vol. 9, 487 p.
  22. Tyson G. P. Joseph Johnson: A Liberal Publisher. Iowa City, University of Iowa Press, 1979, 276 p.

 

Uncategorized