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263.More information
In 1967, Charles Frostin, historian who devoted large part of his researches at studying the evolution of the French colony of Saint-Domingue, proposed a first “Atlantic” interpretation of the local society “Americanization” process. In his opinion, during the XVIII century, the role played by contraband was crucial, both as communication instrument and as a way to share autonomist thoughts. This historical approach, in minority at the time, was largely resumed during the '80. Nevertheless, recent analyses has shown that much remain to be studied to better understand the complex evolution of the XVIII century Saint-Domingue communities.
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264.More information
This article aims to explore a discursive paradigm that receives little discussion in the historiography of the French Revolution: the paradigm of authority. It has been defended by such moderate counter-revolutionary authors as Mallet du Pan, Mounier and Sénac de Meilhan. To explain the origin of the French Revolution, these authors supported the thesis that the monarchy had broken down from within and that the resulting absence of authority favoured the development of power struggles and their attendant violence. No conspiracy à la Barruel or Divine Providence à la de Maistre accounted for the revolutionary event. Thus, a detailed political analysis of the disintegration of the power of the monarchy offers an understanding of the revolutionary dynamic born in 1789. To this end, the authors of this paradigm had to defend the heritage of Enlightenment philosophy by means of a long polemic that was to mark the entire revolutionary decade and constitute the principal debate within counter-revolutionary political culture.
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266.More information
AbstractHistorians of Canadian science and technology frequently resort to the comparative method, but this historiographic production should not simply juxtapose national experiences or submit them to a common questionnaire, as it often does. After presenting the advantages and the disadvantages of the comparative method, the author offers two methodological proposals inspired by environmental history so as to introduce a critical approach to the idea of nation into the comparative method. In order to stop conferring upon the nation a favoured point of view in historical analysis, comparative history must situate the nation among various scales or demonstrate its constructed character.