This book provides a new interpretation of political thought and political economy in France from the death of Louis XVI to the July revolution of 1830. The clash between modern republicanism and other theories of governing societies is the background to a thorough interpretation of the life and writings of Jean-Baptiste Say, the most famous political economist of the post-revolutionary era.

• Part I. Reinterpreting Say


• 1: The J.-B. Say problem


• 2: Republicanism and political economy


• Part II The Intellectual Context of Say's Ideas


• 3: The political economy of French decline


• 4: The republican turn in France, 1776-1789


• 5: Revolution and the political economy of Terror


• Part III Republican Political Economy


• 6: Say's republicanism, 1794-1798


• 7: The idea of a Traité d'économie politique


• 8: Defending republican manners


• 9: Restoring French glory


• Part IV Republican Political Economy in Conditions of Monarchy


• 10: Rejecting the post-war settlement


• 11: 'Social science in its entirety'


• 12: Conclusion

1989-90, Joseph Hodges Choate Memorial Fellow, Harvard University