Présentation

Paul Cheney is an historian of Europe with a specialization in old regime France and its colonial empire. Before beginning his PhD training in history at Columbia University, he studied political economy at the New School for Social Research. He has taught at Columbia University, the European College of Liberal Arts (Berlin), and the Queen's University of Belfast.

The unifying element of Professor Cheney’s work is an interest in early modern capitalism, and in particular the problem of how modern social and political forms gestated within traditional society. Old regime France serves as an excellent case study in this problem because of the way in which it combined real economic dynamism with deep-seated political and social impediments to growth. He addresses France’s integration into a globalized early modern economy in a methodology diverse way, drawing on intellectual, economic, and social history. His first book, Revolutionary Commerce: Globalization in the French Monarchy (Harvard University Press, 2010) examined how French philosophes, merchants, and administrators understood the adaptability of the French monarchy to the modernizing forces of primitive globalization. Currently, he is working on a second book entitled Cul de Sac: Economy and Society in Eighteenth-Century Saint Domingue (University of Chicago Press, forthcoming), a micro-history of one plantation in France’s richest colony. He has published in such journals as The William and Mary Quarterly, Past & Present, Dix-Huitième siècle, and Les Annales historiques de la révolution française.

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Conférences

Dans le cadre du séminaire de Philippe Minard, État, travail et société (France et Angleterre, XVIII^e-XIX^e siècles)
IHMC - ENS (escalier D, 3^e étage) - 45, rue d'Ulm - 75005 Paris

L’économie politique de la colonisation à l'époque moderne : de la monarchie composite à la nation
Vendredi 15 avril de 16h à 18h

L’organisation du travail sur une habitation sucrière à Saint-Domingue à l'époque de la guerre d’indépendance américaine
Vendredi 6 mai de 16h à 18h

La persistance de l'Ancien Régime à Haïti : mode de production et idéologie nationaliste
Vendredi 13 mai de 16h à 18h

Dans le cadre du séminaire de Cécile Vidal, Histoire comparée des traites, esclavages et abolitions dans les mondes atlantiques
L’esclavage au temps des Lumières : sentiment, humanité et intérêt
Mardi 3 mai de 16h à 18h
EHESS (salle 12) - 105, boulevard Raspail  - 75006 Paris

Accueil et séjour

• Invité par Philippe Minard

• 2 mois (avril-mai)