Higgitt examines Isaac Newton's changing legacy during the nineteenth century. She focuses on 1820-1870, a period that saw the creation of the specialized and secularized role of the'scientist.'At the same time, researchers gained better access to Newton's archives. These were used both by those who wished to undermine the traditional, idealised depiction of scientific genius and those who felt obliged to defend Newtonian hagiography. Higgitt shows how debates about Newton's character stimulated historical scholarship and led to the development of a new expertise in the history of science.

motw/From Citizens to Subjects_ City - Curtis G. Murphy.pdf

From Citizens to Subjects: City, State, and the Enlightenment in Poland, Ukraine, and Belarus (Russian and East European Studies)

Murphy, Curtis G.;

Curtis G. Murphy

Series in Russian and East European Studies, Pittsburgh, copyright 2018

Series in Russian and East European studies, Pittsburgh, Pa, 2018

Pitt Series in Russian and East European Studies, 2018

United States, United States of America

1, 2018-07-24

1, PS, 2018

producers:
Adobe PDF Library 15.0

Memory of the World Librarian: outernationale

From Citizens to Subjects challenges the common assertion in historiography that Enlightenment-era centralization and rationalization brought progress and prosperity to all European states, arguing instead that centralization failed to improve the socioeconomic position of urban residents in the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth over a hundred-year period.
Murphy examines the government of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and the several imperial administrations that replaced it after the Partitions, comparing and contrasting their relationships with local citizenry, minority communities, and nobles who enjoyed considerable autonomy in their management of the cities of present-day Poland, Ukraine, and Belarus. He shows how the failure of Enlightenment-era reform was a direct result of the inherent defects in the reformers' visions, rather than from sabotage by shortsighted local residents. Reform in Poland-Lithuania effectively destroyed the existing system of complexities and imprecisions that had allowed certain towns to flourish, while also fostering a culture of self-government and civic republicanism among city citizens of all ranks and religions. By the mid-nineteenth century, the increasingly immobile post-Enlightenment state had transformed activist citizens into largely powerless subjects without conferring the promised material and economic benefits of centralization.
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About the Author
Curtis G. Murphy is assistant professor in the Department of History, Philosophy, and Religious Studies at Nazarbayev University in Astana, Kazakhstan.

Contents 8
Maps 10
Preface 14
A Note on Terms and Place Names 20
Common Abbreviations 22
Introduction. Progress or Backwardness? Enlightened Centralism versus Civic Republicanism in the Former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth 26
Chapter 1. We Built This City on Magdeburg Law: Cities and Citizens in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth before the First Partition 50
Chapter 2. If Only Our Commission Had More Power: Enlightened Centralism and the Royal Cities after the First Partition 78
Chapter 3. Weaponizing Good Order: Urban Politics and Civic Republicanism in the Era of Constitutional Reform and Partition, 1788–1809 111
Chapter 4. Enlightened Profit-Seeking: The Private Towns of the Zamoyski and Radziwiłł Estates in the Eighteenth Century 146
Chapter 5. The Apogee of Enlightened Centralism: Town and State in the Napoleonic and Post-Napoleonic Period 178
Chapter 6. The Persistence of the Old Commonwealth: Cities, Nobles, and the State in the Western Provinces of the Russian Empire 213
Conclusion. Emancipating Citizens into Subjects 244
Appendixes 262
Notes 266
Bibliography 312
Index 336

Challenges the common assertion in historiography that Enlightenment-era centralization and rationalization brought progress and prosperity to all European states, arguing instead that centralization failed to improve the socio-economic position of urban residents in the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth over a 100-year period.

2025-10-27