Visiting Scholar: Antoine Parent

Summary

Antoine Parent visited the Stone Center from April 1 to April 9 to collaborate with Director Steven Durlauf and examine historical evidence to consider whether popular societies were a place of diffusion of a plural thought during the French revolution.

Their findings aim to challenge the conventional view that societies of thought were the vehicle of a uniform Jacobin thought. On the contrary, they find that the monographs of popular societies provide evidence of a democratic impulse underlying debates over ideas. This intellectual diversity reflects a sociological diversity among club members that contrasts with the fixed society of the ancient regime. This provides evidence that these two characteristics of popular societies coincide with the diffusion of revolutionary ideas outside popular societies.

Relevant Publication

• Bastidon, C., Durlauf, S., Parent, A. (June 2023) “Diffusion in Cliometrics and Complexity: The Role of Popular Societies in the Dynamic Spread of Revolutionary Ideas in 1789 France“