1. A History of World Societies Ninth Edition
McKay • Hill • Buckler • Ebrey • Beck • Crowston • Wiesner-Hanks
A History of World Societies Ninth Edition
CHAPTER 18
New Worldviews and Ways of Life
1540–1790
Copyright © 2011 by Bedford/St. Martin’s

8. The French Book Trade, (p. 538)
1. Who do you think customers of this book shop might have been, in terms of social status and wealth?
(Answer: The only person we can tell is a customer of the bookstore is not presented in any detail. But the people on the street around the store are of a range of wealth and status (see on the bottom right, for example, the street vendor and the woman stooping to buy something from him, and in the background the wealthier people around the carriage). The bookstore itself is large, open to the street, and has many books in stock. We can conclude that people of a range of statuses could and did purchase books here, not just the wealthiest elites. )
2. Can you connect the existence of this bookstore in a city in eighteenth century France with major developments in European history such as the spread of Enlightenment ideas, the invention of the printing press, and urbanization?
(Answer: This is a bookstore catering to a kind of mass market and it is apparently not church-run. This kind of an enterprise would not have been viable without the growth of mass literacy in many European cities, the printing revolution (which made it possible to produce books relatively cheaply) and the spread of secular reading that accompanied the Enlightenment.
3. Towards the right of the illustration is the façade of a building with the appearance of a Classical temple. Do you suppose there might be any significance to the artist’s prominent placement of this façade in the picture?
(Answer: Many public buildings in Europe at this time did emulate Classical architecture. Nonetheless, one might speculate that the bookstore’s motto, “Under the Protection of Minerva” and the “temple” façade both hark back to the Classical tradition revived under the Renaissance. Enlightenment thinkers were educated in the literary classics of the Greco-Roman world and their writings were permeated with examples and ideas from that world. )

9. Enlightenment Culture, (p. 539)
1. Given the social status of the people attending this salon, why might it have represented a particularly dangerous challenge to rule of the monarchy, nobility, and Catholic Church in France?
(Answer: These men and women are members of the educated elite. They are attending an event dedicated to the reading of a work by Voltaire, an exiled writer who challenged the authority of crown and church by means of the (supposedly) objective criteria of reason and science. Substantial numbers of the French elite no longer supported the monarch and church’s claims to authority. )
2. What do you make of the presence of women at this gathering?
(Answer: Very few Enlightenment thinkers advocated what we today would define as equal rights for women. But many accepted that women were capable of reason, debate, and participation in certain kinds of decision-making. Hence women are gathered here with the men to take part in and discuss the reading of Voltaire’s play. This in itself was revolutionary. )

10. Maria Theresa, (p. 541)
1. This painting emphasizes the authority of the Austrian empress Maria Theresa, as opposed to that of her husband. How does it do so?
(Answer: Maria Theresa sits taller than her husband and she is to the right of the image, a position historically considered superior in European culture. Her son, the heir to the throne, stands by her, not her husband. )
2. Nearly all portraits of monarchs from this period must be considered in part royal propaganda. How does the presentation of Maria Theresa in this painting differ from that of Louis XIV reproduced on p. 490? Do you think that there might be a connection between any such difference and the gender of each monarch?
(Answer: Louis XIV appears as a powerful, massive figure, a judge and wielder of military might. Maria Theresa is painted in family scene, with her husband and children. Propaganda for female monarchs in Europe did often present them as warriors or champions of justice. In this case, however, one could argue that the artist who painted Maria Theresa sought to reduce anxiety about feminine rule by showing the empress in the “normal” female role of mother. )