The Cambridge Companion to Constant Book

Preface ix

Acknowledgments xv

Contributors xvii

Abbreviations xxi

Chronology xxiii

Introduction

1 Benjamin Constant: Life and Work Dennis Wood 3

Part I The Political Thinker and Actor

2 Liberalism's Lucid Illusion Marcel Gauchet 23

3 The Liberty to Denounce: Ancient and Modern Stephen Holmes 47

4 Constant's Idea of Modern Liberty Jeremy Jennings 69

5 Benjamin Constant and the Terror Stefano De Luca 92

6 Constant's Thought on Slavery and Empire Jennifer Pitts 115

7 Benjamin Constant as a Second Restoration Politician Robert Alexander 146

Part II The Psychologist and Critic

8 Constant and Women K. Steven Vincent 173

9 Individualism and Individuality in Constant Gerald Izenberg 206

10 Literature and Politics in Constant Patrick Coleman 225

11 The Theory of the Perfectibility of the Human Race Etienne Hofmann 248

Part III The Analyst and Historian of Religion

12 Religion According to Constant Tzvetan Todorov 275

13 Constant on the Religious Spirit of Liberalism Bryan Garsten 286

14 Constant and Religion: "Theism Descends from Heaven to Earth" Laurence Dickey 313

Conclusion

15 Eclipses and Revivals: Constant's Reception in France and America 1830-2007 Helena Rosenblatt 351

Bibliography 379

Index 403