Overview
- Explores the significance of Emer de Vattel’s seminal work, Droit des gens, in political debate and the conception of good government
- Draws on unpublished sources from European archives and libraries to trace the 52 editions and translations of this work between 1758 and the end of the nineteenth century
- Uncovers the reasons behind de Vattel’s controversial success during the age of revolutions
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About this book
This book explores the history of the international order in the eighteenth and nineteenth century through a new study of Emer de Vattel’s Droit des gens (1758). Drawing on unpublished sources from European archives and libraries, the book offers an in-depth account of the reception of Vattel’s chief work. Vattel’s focus on the myth of good government became a strong argument for republicanism, the survival of small states, drafting constitutions and reform projects and fighting everyday battles for freedom in different geographical, linguistic and social contexts. The book complicates the picture of Vattel’s enduring success and usefulness, showing too how the work was published and translated to criticize and denounce the dangerousness of these ideas. In doing so, it opens up new avenues of research beyond histories of international law, political and economic thought.
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Keywords
Table of contents (12 chapters)
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Front Matter
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Back Matter
Authors and Affiliations
About the author
Antonio Trampus is Professor of Modern History at Ca’ Foscari University Venice, Italy. His research focuses on cultural history and constitutionalism. His books include the critical edition of Benjamin Constant’s commentary on Filangieri (2012) and the edited volume, with K. Stapelbroek, of The Legacy of Vattel’s Droit des gens (2019).
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Emer de Vattel and the Politics of Good Government
Book Subtitle: Constitutionalism, Small States and the International System
Authors: Antonio Trampus
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-48024-0
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham
eBook Packages: History, History (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-030-48023-3Published: 01 September 2020
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-030-48026-4Published: 01 September 2021
eBook ISBN: 978-3-030-48024-0Published: 31 August 2020
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: VIII, 267
Topics: Intellectual Studies, Political History, European History, Legal History, History of the Book