Benjamin Constant and the Birth of French Liberalism

Traditional scholarship on French liberalism has frequently proceeded by defining the core issues and telling a story of their emergence and development. This book takes a different approach: rather than beginning with an a priori definition of liberalism, it focuses on the political thought of Benjamin Constant and Germaine de Stael, the first figures in France to call their thought 'liberal.' In so doing, it advances a new interpretation of the timing and character of French (and more broadly European) liberalism, and contributes to the ongoing debate concerning the place of morality, sociability, and conceptions of the 'self' in modern liberal thought.