Robert Darnton
Darnton pioneered the social history of ideas and publishing, showing how books circulated in 18th-century France to illuminate the cultural roots of the Revolution. The Great Cat Massacre is his most read work.
Works
- The Great Cat MassacreEssays on French popular culture, rural riots, and social history
- The Business of EnlightenmentHistory of Enlightenment publishing and book distribution in eighteenth-century Europe
- The Literary Underground of the Old RegimeHistory of clandestine publications and forbidden books in pre-revolutionary France
- Mesmerism and the End of the Enlightenment in FranceHistory of mesmerism, animal magnetism, and proto-science in Enlightenment France