Early French and German Defenses of Freedom of the Press: Elie Luzac's Essay on Freedom of Expression (1749) and Carl Friedrich Bahrdt's On Freedom of . Studies in Intellectual History, 113)

Karl Friedrich Bahrdt Elie Luzac Johan van der Zande John Christian Laursen

ISBN 10: 9004130179 / ISBN 13: 9789004130173

Published by Brill Academic Publishers, 2003

About this Item

pp. 184.

Seller Inventory # 2648022863

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Early French and German Defenses of Freedom of the Press: Elie Luzac's Essay on Freedom of Expression (1749) and Carl Friedrich Bahrdt's On Freedom of . Studies in Intellectual History, 113)
• Publisher: Brill Academic Publishers
• Publication Date: 2003
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 9004130179
• ISBN 13: 9789004130173
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

This volume contains English translations of two important early French and German defences of freedom of the press. Almost unknown in the English-speaking world, these texts demonstrate that freedom of the press was an important issue in other parts of Europe in the early modern period, giving rise to articulate theories. Elie Luzac's Essay on Freedom of Expression (1749) defended freedom of the press for atheists on natural law and other grounds. Carl Friedrich Bahrdt's On Freedom of the Press and its Limits (1787) drew on natural law, religious rhetoric, and political journalism to make the case for understanding freedom of the press as a human right. Together, these texts show that the French and German traditions included their own intellectual resources for defending modern rights, before the American Bill of Rights and the French Declaration of the Rights of Man.

About the Author

John Christian Laursen, Ph.D. (1985), The Johns Hopkins University, is Professor of Political Science at the University of California, Riverside.

Johan van der Zande, Ph.D. (1980), Universiteit van Amsterdam, is Visiting Scholar at the University of California, Berkeley.