Business of Enlightenment

Robert Darnton is the author of numerous award-winning books on French cultural history, including The Revolutionary Temper. A MacArthur Fellow, chevalier in the Légion d’honneur, and winner of the National Humanities Medal and the National Book Critics Circle Award, Darnton is the Carl H. Pforzheimer University Professor and Director of the University Library, Emeritus, at Harvard University.

• * I. Introduction: The Biography of a Book * II. The Genesis of a Speculation in Publishing * The Neuchatel Reprint Plan * From the Reprint to the Revised Edition * Joseph Duplain and His Quarto Encyclopedie * Publishing, Politics, and Panckoucke * From the Revised Edition to the Quarto * The Paris Conference of 1777 * The Basis of a Bonne Affaire * III. Juggling Editions * The "Second Edition" * The Origins of the "Third Edition" * Imbroglios * The Neuchatel Imprint * Opening Gambits of the Final Negotiations * Duel by Lettre Ostensible * The Last Turn of the Screw * The Contract * IV. Piracy and Trade War * Pirate Raids * The Octavo Publishers and Their Encyclopedie * The Origins of the Quarto--Octavo War * The Final Failure of Diplomacy * Open War * Pourparlers for Peace * A Drole de Paix * V. Bookmaking * Strains on the Production System * Procuring Paper * Copy * Recruiting Workers * Setting Wages * Pacing Work and Managing Labor * Printing: Technology and the Human Element * VI. Diffusion * Managerial Problems and Polemics * Marketing * Booksellers * Prices and Consumers * The Sales Pattern * Subscribers, A Case Study * Diffusion in France * Diffusion Outside France * Reading * VII. Settling Accounts * The Hidden Schism of 1778 * A Preliminary Reglement de Comples * The Feud Between Duplain and the STN * Marketing Maneuvers * The Perrin Affair * The Anatomy of a Swindle * The Final Confrontation in Lyons * Denouement * Epilogue * VIII. The Ultimate Encyclopedie * The Origins of the Encyclopedie Methodique * The Climactic Moment in Enlightenment Publishing * The Liegeois Settlement * Panckoucke's Conception of the Supreme Encyclopedie * Panckoucke as an Editor * The Authors of the Methodique * Two Generations of Encyclopedists * From Voltairianism to Professionalism * Launching the Biggest Book of the Century * IX. Encyclopedism, Capitalism, and Revolution * Panckoucke 's Folly * From Encyclopedism to Jacobinism * An Enlightenment Publisher in a Cultural Revolution * The Last of the Encyclopedists * X. Conclusion * The Production and Diffusion of Enlightenment * Enlightenment Publishing and the Spirit of Capitalism * The Encyclopedie and the State * The Cultural Revolution * Appendices * A. Contracts of the Encyclopedie Publishers, 1776--1780 * B. Subscriptions to the Quarto Encyclopedie * C. Incidence of Subscriptions in Major French Cities * D. Contributors to the Encyclopedie Methodique * Bibliographical Note * Index

Publishing history, as told by Professor Darnton, turns out to be much meatier and livelier than might be expected…[This book is] a major achievement of American scholarship and in the first rank of those which have been transforming our view of French history during the last twenty years.