Episode 31 – The Old Regime


In Nov. 2018, French President Emanuel Macron declared war on “offensive and hateful content” on the internet. Subsequently, France adopted strict laws against both online hate speech and fake news, which is thought to threaten France’s liberal democratic values. 

But this is not the first time in history that France has sought to combat supposedly “dangerous content” spread by clandestine networks intent on undermining essential values and moeurs. 

When Paris became the capital of the High-Enlightenment around the mid-eighteenth century, the Old Regime monarchy created a Maginot Line of overlapping pre- and post-publication censorship. This system was intended to ensure that good books were encouraged and privileged while bad books that attacked the monarchy and Catholic orthodoxy or morals were kept out of circulation or suppressed.  

Just as French regulators today may struggle to distinguish between hate and political speech, it was not easy to draw the line between useful new ideas and subversive philosophy in a society in flux. As Enlightenment ideas took hold and literacy increased, a public sphere emerged from under the shadow of royal absolutism and strict religious orthodoxy. In this sphere, Enlightenment philosophers like Voltaire and Diderot fought to expand the limits of tolerance and free speech, while counter-enlightenment anti-philosophers tried to stem the rising tide of what they saw as godless sedition. Each faction tried to exert decisive influence over the institutions of the Old Regime and land the decisive blow in the battle over the public sphere shaping French mores. 

The stakes were high and the outcome uncertain. But perhaps the events of pre-revolutionary France may help explain why even today the democratically elected president of France has taken the lead in fighting the nebulous concept of “offensive and hateful content.”

In this episode, we will explore:

  • How salons, cafés, and an increase in literacy and print created a new public sphere
  • The ins and outs of pre-and post-publication censorship in the Old Regime
  • How censorship and book monopolies created a booming black market, flooding France with philosophy and pornography 
  • How a culture of honor limited free expression 
  • How royal censors both furthered and frustrated the efforts of Enlightenment authors 
  • How a group of radical Enlightenment philosophers challenged religious and moral authorities from the Salon of Baron D’Holbach and through the pages of the Encyclopédie — a bold and subversive attempt to compile all the knowledge in the world
  • How France’s chief censor saved the Encylopédie from destruction and ensured its eventual triumph 
  • How a 19-year-old teenager became the last person to be executed for blasphemy in France
  • How French philosophers including Diderot, Rousseau, and Voltaire failed to formulate a coherent and robust free speech doctrine 

Why have kings, emperors, and governments killed and imprisoned people to shut them up? And why have countless people risked death and imprisonment to express their beliefs? Jacob Mchangama guides you through the history of free speech from the trial of Socrates to the Great Firewall.

You can subscribe and listen to Clear and Present Danger on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, YouTube, TuneIn, and Stitcher, or download episodes directly from SoundCloud.

Stay up to date with Clear and Present Danger on the show’s Facebook and Twitter pages. Email us feedback at freespeechhistory@gmail.com.

Bibliography:

  • Blom, P. (2012). A Wicked Company: The Forgotten Radicalism of the European Enlightenment. Basic Books.
  • Darnton, R. (2014). Censors At Work: How States Shaped Literature. The British Library.
  • Darnton, R. (2000, January 5). An Early Information Society: News and the Media in Eighteenth-Century Paris. American Historical Association. Retrieved from here.
  • Darnton, R. (1996). The Forbidden Best-Sellers of Pre-Revolutionary France. London, UK: Harper Collins Publishers.
  • Darnton, R. (1987). The Business of Enlightenment – Publishing History of the “Encyclopédie”, 1775-1800. Cambridge, MA & London, UK: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.  
  • Darnton, R. (1982). The Literary Underground of the Old Regime. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
  • Darnton, R. (1971). ‘Reading, writing, and publishing in eighteenth-century France: A case study in the sociology of literature’.Daedalus 100(1), pp. 214–256.
  • Darnton, R. & Roche, D. (1989). Revolution in Print: The Press in France, 1775-1800. University of California Press.
  • Davidson, I. (2012). Voltaire: A Life. Pegasus Books.
  • Dugdale, J. (2015, January 16). Voltaire’s Treatise on Tolerance becomes bestseller following Paris attacks. The Guardian. Retrieved from here.
  • France, P. (2005) (ed.). Cafés and Restaurants. The New Oxford Companion to Literature in French. Oxford University Press.
  • Israel, J. (2013). Libertas Philosophandi in the Eighteenth Century: Radical Enlightenment versus Moderate Enlightenment (1750–1776). In: Powers, E. (ed.) Freedom of Speech: The History of an Idea. Bucknell University Press.
  • Israel, J. (2011). Democratic Enlightenment – Philosophy, Revolution, and Human Rights, 1750-1790. Oxford University Press.
  • Israel, J. (2009). A revolution of the mind – Radical Enlightenment and the intellectual origins of modern democracy. Princeton University Press.
  • Israel, J. (2006). Enlightenment Contested: Philosophy, Modernity, and the Emancipation of Man 1670-1752. Oxford University Press.
  • Israel, J. (2002). Radical Enlightenment: Philosophy and the Making of Modernity 1650-1750. Oxford University Press.
  • Gil, G. (2018). Blasphemy and defamation of religion following Charlie Hebdo Neville Cox. In: Temperman, J. & Koltay, A. (eds.) Blasphemy and Freedom of Expression: Comparative, Theoretical and Historical Reflections after the Charlie Hebdo Massacre. Cambridge University Press.
  • Goodman, D. (1994). The Republic of Letters: A Cultural History of the French Enlightenment. Cornell University Press.
  • Grell, O.P. & Porter, R. (2006) (eds.) Toleration in Enlightenment Europe. Cambridge University Press.
  • Kelly, C. (2003). Rousseau as Author: Consecrating One’s Life to the Truth. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
  • Kors, A.C. (2005) (ed.). Helvétius, Claude-Adrien. Oxford Encyclopedia of the Enlightenment. Oxford University Press.
  • McMahon, D.M. (2002). Enemies of the Enlightenment – The French Counter-Enlightenment and the Making of Modernity. Oxford University Press.
  • Pearson, R. (2010). Voltaire Almighty – A Life in Pursuit of Freedom. A&C Black.
  • Popkin, J.D. (1989). News and Politics in the Age of Revolution: Jean Luzac’s Gazette de Leyde. Ithaca, NY & London, UK: Cornell University Press.
  • Powers, E. (2013) (ed.) Freedom of Speech: The History of an Idea. Bucknell University Press.
  • Quackenbush, C. (2018, November 13). French Regulators Will ‘Embed’ With Facebook to Monitor How It Combats Hate Speech.Time. Retrieved from here.
  • Robertson, J. (2015). The Enlightenment – A Very Short Introduction. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
  • Rosemain, M. (2019, June 25). Exclusive: In a world first, Facebook to give data on hate speech suspects to French courts. Reuters. Retrieved from here.
  • Standage, T. (2013). Writing on the Wall: Social Media – The First 2,000 Years. Bloomsbury.
  • Strauss, L. (1988). Persecution and the Art of Writing. University of Chicago Press.
  • The Guardian (2019, July 9). France online hate speech law to force social media sites to act quickly. Retrieved from here.
  • Tortarolo, E. (2016. The Invention of Free Press: Writers and Censorship in Eighteenth Century Europe. Springer Netherlands. Kindle Edition.
  • Walton, C. (2009). Policing Public Opinion in the French Revolution: The Culture of Calumny and the Problem of Free Speech. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.

 

Primary sources

  • Baron de Grimm [1815]. On Julie de Lespanisse. From Historical and Literary Memoirs and Anecdotes (London: Henry Colburn, 1815). Retrieved from here.
  • Diderot, D. & d’Alembert, J.L.R. (1751–1765). Encyclopedic Liberty: Political Articles in the Dictionary of Diderot and D’Alembert.Edited by H.C. Clark, translated by C.D. Henderson. Retrieved from here.
  • Gouvernement de la République française (2018). Combating the manipulation of information. Retrieved from here.
  • Macron, E. (2018). IGF 2018 Speech by French President Emmanuel Macron. Internet Governance Forum. Retrieved from here.
  • Parlement de Paris (1765, March 19). Arrest de la cour de Parlement… Retrieved from here.
  • Rousseau, J.J. (1762). The Social Contract (Du contrat social; ou Principes du droit politique). Retrieved from here.
  • Voltaire, F. (1764). Liberty of Opinion. Philosophical dictionary. Retrieved from here.
  • Voltaire, F. (1764). Liberty of the Press. Philosophical dictionary. Retrieved from here.
  • Voltaire, F. (1763). Treatise on Tolerance. Retrieved from here.