Jean-Paul Marat - (Life of Ideas) by Keith Michael Baker (Hardcover)

About the Book

"In this monumental work, influential historian Keith Michael Baker takes readers on a journey through the life of Jean-Paul Marat (1743-1793). Starting with Marat's family and upbringing, Baker then sheds light into Marat's early years in England, his career as an aspiring scientist (including his writings on fire, light, and electricity), his gradual transformation from pamphleteer to revolutionary newspaperman, and, finally, his murder and martyrdom. Throughout, Baker offers readers the unique opportunity to reconsider the lead-up and development of the French Revolution through Marat's eyes and in his words. To help make sense of Marat's trajectory, Baker focuses on his subject's lifelong distrust of representation, from the political realm to the scientific and back again. Just as Marat railed against the abstract representation of natural forces in scientific discourse, so, too, in his political thought, he preferred direct embodiment. The Revolution, with its debates between sovereignty represented (in national assemblies) and sovereignty embodied (in the people) provided the perfect occasion for Marat's escalating rhetoric of denunciation and purge. Baker shows how Marat's incendiary public calls to render unseen forces visible, for immediacy in an increasingly abstract modern world, would transform classical republicanism into the language of the Terror"-- Provided by publisher.

Book Synopsis

A landmark biography of one of the most notorious and controversial protagonists of the French Revolution--Jean-Paul Marat.

Who better to pen an authoritative biography of Jean-Paul Marat (1743-93) than preeminent historian of France Keith Michael Baker? Decades in the making, this monumental work takes readers on a journey through the intriguing, sometimes shocking life of this writer and thinker.

Starting with Marat's Swiss family and upbringing, Baker then sheds light on his early years in England, his career as an aspiring scientist in Paris, his gradual transformation from impassioned pamphleteer to revolutionary newspaperman, and, finally, his murder and martyrdom. Throughout, Baker offers readers the unique opportunity to reconsider the outbreak and development of the French Revolution through Marat's eyes and in his own words. To help make sense of Marat's trajectory, he shows how his violent and incendiary public calls to render unseen forces visible, to inject immediacy into an increasingly abstract modern world, would transform classical republicanism into the language of Terror.

Far beyond a standard rendering of Marat's life and its milestones, this biography offers readers an opportunity to see the French Revolution as never before, through the perspective of one of its major figures. Baker's book reveals how someone like Marat could go from translating Newton and engaging with Franklin to calling for an ever-growing number of heads to roll--a transformation as chilling as ever.

Review Quotes

"Jean-Paul Marat is a dramatic story of political delusion, that concludes--in the diptych of Condorcet and Marat--in a moving and eloquent alternate vista of reason, sympathy, and the possibility of liberal society."-- "Emma Rothschild, Harvard University"

"A monument of sparkling erudition that brilliantly achieves the daunting task of understanding the most contentious and unsympathetic of French Revolutionaries as a man rather than as a monster. Beautifully written, profoundly researched, and impressively and lucidly argued, Jean-Paul Marat is a biography for the ages."-- "Colin Jones, emeritus, Queen Mary University of London"

"An astounding work of scholarship that will be valued by French Revolution scholars for decades. Following the complicated life of Jean-Paul Marat from beginning to end, it is at once a rich analysis of his thought and an extraordinarily detailed history of the actions, beliefs, and struggles that constituted the fraught daily politics of the French Revolution."-- "William H. Sewell Jr, University of Chicago"

"This is a monumental and definitive biography. Through his expert knowledge and gripping, clear writing, Baker has developed a brilliant political portrait of one of the most important revolutionaries in modern history."-- "David Bell, Princeton University"

About the Author

Keith Michael Baker is the J. E. Wallace Sterling Professor in the Humanities, professor of history, and professor (by courtesy) of French and Italian, emeritus, at Stanford University. He is the author or editor of several books on the Enlightenment and the French Revolution.