Modernity and Bourgeois Life by Jerrold Seigel

Modernity and Bourgeois Life by Jerrold Seigel – Society, Politics, and Culture in England, France and Germany Since 1750 is one of the books recommended for University. It was very interesting, but it is quite a long book, at over 500 pages (without notes, although I did look on those rather often). While it takes a bit of commitment, I would say that it is worth it.

The book deals with the topic of modernity in the nineteenth-century Europe. The main focus is on the bourgeoisie. At the same time, the book offers an insight into the development of the classes and how they interacted with each other. He emphasises the role of art, literature, and language at that time, besides the obvious topics like politics, finance, networks, and education. The book is written in an easy to read way, not particularly dry.

a quote from the book:
In 1790 the Marquis de Condorcet wrote that without equality between the sexes there could be no universal claim to human rights: “Either no individual of the human race has true rights, or all of them have the same ones; and he who votes against the rights of another, whatever his religion, his colour, or his sex, has from that moment abjured his own rights.”

Modernity and Bourgeois Life by Jerrold Seigel

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My rating: 5/5 Stars
Would I recommend it: yes
Published by: Cambridge University Press
Year it was published: 2012
Format: Hardcover (I’ve read it as a digital copy, but I think it is available only for students, I’m not sure if the digital version can be purchased)
Genre(s): History
Pages: 638

About the author: Jerrold E. Seigel is Kenan Professor of History Emeritus, New York University.
Books by Jerrold E. Seigel: Modernity and Bourgeois Life; Bohemian Paris: Culture, Politics, and the Boundaries of Bourgeois Life, 1830-1930; The Idea of the Self: Thought and Experience in Western Europe Since the Seventeenth Century; Marx’s Fate: The Shape of a Life; The Private Worlds of Marcel Duchamp: Desire, Liberation, and the Self in Modern Culture.
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