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SUMMARY:2026 George Rousseau Lecture: "Poland was but a breakfast": or\, w
 hy 1772 helps us to understand 1776 - David Armitage (Harvard)
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20260513T170000
DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20260513T180000
UID:https://new.talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/45ed4617-01a1-4a73-96b7-fcba0c1f9a
 01/
DESCRIPTION:The American Revolution is now widely accepted to have been th
 e last civil war within the British Empire of the Atlantic world. However\
 , British\, imperial\, and Atlantic contexts do not exhaust the historical
  frames essential to understand the Revolution or\, more specifically\, 17
 76. For contemporaries on both sides of the Atlantic\, Europe—particular
 ly the European balance of power—was the most important setting for the 
 fears raised by the American War. The greatest assault on that balance of 
 power had occurred only four years before 1776 in 1772 with the first Part
 ition of Poland by Austria\, Prussia and Russia. This lecture shows how fe
 ars of partition\, "Poland like"\, drove the decision for American indepen
 dence and how the Polish response to partition shaped the British counterb
 last to the Declaration of Independence.\n\n*David Armitage* is the Lloyd 
 C. Blankfein Professor of History and former Chair of the Department of Hi
 story at Harvard University\, where he teaches intellectual history and in
 ternational history. He is also an Affiliated Professor in the Harvard Dep
 artment of Government\, an Affiliated Faculty Member at Harvard Law School
 \, and an Honorary Professor of History at the University of Sydney. Befor
 e coming to Harvard in 2004\, he taught for eleven years at Columbia Unive
 rsity. He is the author or editor of fifteen books\, among them _The Ideol
 ogical Origins of the British Empire_ (2000)\, _The Declaration of Indepen
 dence: A Global History_ (2007)\, _Foundations of Modern International Tho
 ught_ (2013)\, _The History Manifesto_ (co-auth.\, 2014)\, and _Civil Wars
 : A History in Ideas_ (2017). Among his edited works are _Shakespeare and 
 Early Modern Political Thought_ (co-ed.\, 2009)\, _The Age of Revolutions 
 in Global Context\, c. 1760-1840) (co-ed.\, 2010)\, and _Pacific Histories
 : Ocean\, Land\, People_ (co-ed.\, 2014). \n\nThe lecture will be followed
  by a drinks reception.\nSpeakers:\nDavid Armitage (Harvard)
LOCATION:Magdalen College (Auditorium)\, High Street OX1 4AU
TZID:Europe/London
URL:https://new.talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/45ed4617-01a1-4a73-96b7-fcba0c1f9a
 01/
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DESCRIPTION:Talk:2026 George Rousseau Lecture: "Poland was but a breakfast
 ": or\, why 1772 helps us to understand 1776 - David Armitage (Harvard)
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SUMMARY:2025 George Rousseau Lecture: On the logic of autocracy and the pl
 asticity of history: the case of Frederick William I\, King of Prussia - B
 arbara Stollberg-Rilinger ((Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin/Institute of Adv
 anced Study))
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20250430T170000
DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20250430T180000
UID:https://new.talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/b39933b9-6e12-441a-9c51-a61784da59
 93/
DESCRIPTION:What happens if a person who rejects all rules and conventions
  finds himself in the position of the ruler? The Prussian ‘Soldier King
 ’ Frederick William I (1688-1740)\, father of Frederick the Great\, is a
  legendary figure of German history. He is known for state reforms\, the v
 ast expansion of his army\, and for almost sentencing his son to death. Fr
 ederick William I demonstratively challenged almost all political\, legal\
 , moral\, and aesthetic norms of the time: he humiliated the elites\, dist
 rusted his officials\, avoided the company of women\, and traumatized his 
 son. Contemporaries such as Montesquieu regarded him as a ridiculous outsi
 der and a pathological despot. Later historians\, however\, transformed hi
 m into the ‘educator of the German people.’ This bizarre case can serv
 e as an example of the social logic of autocracy and the power of retrospe
 ctive rationalization.\n \n*Barbara Stollberg-Rilinger* was\, from 1997 to
  2021\, Professor of Early Modern History at the University of Münster\, 
 where she led collaborative research groups on ‘Symbolic Communication a
 nd Social Value Systems’ and ‘Religion and Politics.’ Since 2018 she
  is Rector of the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin/Institute of Advanced Stud
 y. She is a member of various academies and a Fellow of the British Academ
 y. Her field of research is the constitutional\, political and cultural hi
 story of Europe from the 16th century to the 18th\, especially the Holy Ro
 man Empire. Her main research focus is on political rituals and procedures
 \, metaphors and symbols. \nSpeakers:\nBarbara Stollberg-Rilinger ((Wissen
 schaftskolleg zu Berlin/Institute of Advanced Study))
LOCATION:Magdalen College (Auditorium)\, High Street OX1 4AU
TZID:Europe/London
URL:https://new.talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/b39933b9-6e12-441a-9c51-a61784da59
 93/
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DESCRIPTION:Talk:2025 George Rousseau Lecture: On the logic of autocracy a
 nd the plasticity of history: the case of Frederick William I\, King of Pr
 ussia - Barbara Stollberg-Rilinger ((Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin/Institu
 te of Advanced Study))
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SUMMARY:2024 George Rousseau lecture: Images of Jews' Economic Roles from 
 the Enlightenment to the French Revolution - Francesca Trivellato (IAS\, P
 rinceton)
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20240430T170000
DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20240430T180000
UID:https://new.talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/c7b17c6b-033b-4527-9bd7-81792238f5
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DESCRIPTION:France was the first country in Europe to grant Jews full citi
 zenship rights in 1790-91. Why emancipation occurred then and there is a q
 uestion that historians continue to grapple with. Many have looked for an 
 answer in the relative positive views of the Jewish merchants of Iberian d
 escent who lived in the Southwest of France among eighteenth-century Enlig
 htenment thinkers.\n\nStarting from a new reading of a famous passage by M
 ontesquieu\, the talk will challenge this prevailing interpretation and sh
 ow that even the most ardent advocates of Jewish emancipation regarded any
  association between Jews and commerce or finance with great suspicion. In
  so doing\, it will contend with the widespread notion according to which 
 economic utility paved (and\, more generally\, can pave) the way for polit
 ical and human rights.\n\n*Francesca Trivellato* is the Andrew W Mellon Pr
 ofessor at the School for Historical Studies of the Institute for Advanced
  Study (IAS) in Princeton. A leading historian of early modern Italy and c
 ontinental Europe\, Trivellato has made significant and ground-breaking co
 ntributions to our understanding of the organization and culture of the ma
 rketplace in the pre-industrial world. Trivellato’s original and imagina
 tive research has revitalized the study of early economic history\, and he
 r influential work on cross-cultural trade intersects the fields of Europe
 an\, Jewish\, Mediterranean\, and global history\, religion\, and capitali
 sm.\n\nAdmission is free but please book your tickets in advance.\nSpeaker
 s:\nFrancesca Trivellato (IAS\, Princeton)
LOCATION:Magdalen College (Auditorium)\, High Street OX1 4AU
TZID:Europe/London
URL:https://new.talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/c7b17c6b-033b-4527-9bd7-81792238f5
 df/
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DESCRIPTION:Talk:2024 George Rousseau lecture: Images of Jews' Economic Ro
 les from the Enlightenment to the French Revolution - Francesca Trivellato
  (IAS\, Princeton)
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SUMMARY:George Rousseau Lecture: Edward Gibbon and Lausanne - Professor B
 éla Kapossy (University of Lausanne & EPFL)
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20220516T170000
DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20220516T180000
UID:https://new.talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/334c91e1-b976-47df-ab5d-677ab96dd9
 85/
DESCRIPTION:Edward Gibbon spent more than a third of his life in Lausanne\
 , first for his education during the 1750s (following a stint at Magdalen 
 College\, Oxford)\; then in the early 1760s on a stopover on his way to Ro
 me\; and finally throughout the 1780s and early 1790s\, when he was alread
 y the celebrated author of The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roma
 n Empire. Gibbon recorded each of his stays\, and while mentioning what he
  read and whom he met\, he remained largely silent on the cultural setting
 s of the town he came to call home. Recent discoveries in private archives
  allow for a much richer understanding of Gibbon’s encounter with Lausan
 ne and his engagement with local debates\, scholarly and political. The re
 construction of Gibbon’s Swiss experience sheds\, in turn\, new light on
  the variety and intensity of Lausanne’s cultural life\, explaining why 
 the city came to be known in the following century as the ‘ville de Gibb
 on’.\n\nA wine reception will follow the lecture in the Grove Auditorium
 \, and the lecture will be preceded by a colloquium\, from 14:00-16:00\, i
 n the Summer Common Room.\n\nFor more information please visit:\nhttps://w
 ww.magd.ox.ac.uk/alumni-event/george-rousseau-lecture-edward-gibbon-and-la
 usanne/ \n\nColleagues and students are welcome to attend the lecture\, th
 e colloquium\, or both but registration is required.\nSpeakers:\nProfessor
  Béla Kapossy (University of Lausanne & EPFL)
LOCATION:Magdalen College (Grove Auditorium)\, High Street OX1 4AU
TZID:Europe/London
URL:https://new.talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/334c91e1-b976-47df-ab5d-677ab96dd9
 85/
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 fessor Béla Kapossy (University of Lausanne & EPFL)
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SUMMARY:2023 George Rousseau Lecture - Conversations about Roads: A R J Tu
 rgot and Economic Enlightenment - Professor Emma Rothschild (Harvard)
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20230508T170000
DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20230508T183000
UID:https://new.talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/5feb9ddb-c291-456b-b412-d70cece4ef
 86/
DESCRIPTION:A R J Turgot was for nineteenth-century liberals\, including J
 ohn Austin\, Mathew Arnold and John Stuart Mill\, a heroic and even "godli
 ke" figure. The lecture will explore Turgot's distinctive combination of t
 heoretical and practical interests. It will look in particular at the "gre
 at roads" with which Turgot was so preoccupied\, and at the infrastructure
  of enlightenment.  \n\n*Professor Emma Rothschild* is the Jeremy and Jane
  Knowles Professor of History at Harvard University\, as well as Director 
 of the Joint Center for History and Economics\, Cambridge\, and professeur
  invitée at the Centre d’Histoire de Sciences Po\, Paris. She is involv
 ed in collaborative research projects on Exchanges of Economic\, Legal and
  Political Ideas and on Visualizing Historical Networks. Publications incl
 ude “Economic History and Nationalism” (_Capitalism_\, Winter 2021)\, 
 “A (New) Economic History of the American Revolution?” (_New England Q
 uarterly_\, March 2018)\, "Isolation and Economic Life in Eighteenth-Centu
 ry France" (_American Historical Review_\, October 2014)\, _Economic Senti
 ments: Adam Smith\, Condorcet and the Enlightenment_ (Harvard University P
 ress\, 2001)\, _The Inner Life of Empires: An Eighteenth-Century History_ 
 (Princeton University Press\, 2011)\, and _An Infinite History: The Story 
 of a Family in France Over Three Centuries_ (Princeton University Press\, 
 2021).\nSpeakers:\nProfessor Emma Rothschild (Harvard)
LOCATION:Magdalen College (Grove Auditorium)\, High Street OX1 4AU
TZID:Europe/London
URL:https://new.talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/5feb9ddb-c291-456b-b412-d70cece4ef
 86/
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