Sharing Freedom

The French have long self-identified as champions of universal emancipation yet the republicanism they adopted has often been faulted for being exclusionary of women foreigners and religious and ethnic minorities. Can republicanism be an attractive alternative to liberalism communism and communitarianism or is it fundamentally flawed? Sharing Freedom traces the development of republicanism from an older elitist theory of freedom into an inclusive theory of emancipation during the French Revolution. It uncovers the theoretical innovations of Rousseau and of revolutionaries such as Sieys Robespierre Condorcet and Grouchy. We learn how they struggled to adapt republicanism to the new circumstances of a large and diverse France full of poor and dependent individuals with little education or experience of freedom. Analysing the argumentative logic that led republicans to justify the exclusion of many this book renews the republican tradition and connects it with the enduring issues of colonialism immigration slavery poverty and gender.