A critical review on L.W.B. Brockliss’ French Higher Education in the 17th and 18th Centuries by Dr. Chretien Guidry
L.W.B. Brockliss’ French Higher Education in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries is an in-depth look at the structure and content of both the French college and university curriculum in the 17th and 18th century. Brockliss’ overall argument centers on the idea that the teaching of ethical and metaphysical sciences was unchanging, while the teaching of the natural sciences was one of considerable change. From this argument, Brockliss then makes a number of conclusions about these two centuries, which range from the impact certain professions had on the state to the overall impact these educational systems would have on the broader theme of Absolutism.
Broccolis’ wisely points out, that his argument on how open the natural sciences were compared to the closed minds of ethical and metaphysical sciences should not be too surprising. After all, it is only recently that historical interest in the early-modern university has risen, and a great deal of information remains to be uncovered. However, Broccolis argument is crucial for two main reasons. One, it does reveal that French college and university curriculum did play a major role in the Scientific Revolution. Indeed, because of the interest in knowledge and new ideas by professors of natural sciences, the Scientific Revolution was kept alive and used by the professional liberal elite. Second, Brockliss points out that, “unwittingly, therefore, and ironically a set of institutions above all in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries to maintaining the French absolute State ultimately helped to destroy it.” This was due
in large point to the fact, that in order to support and strengthen the idea of Absolutism, these colleges and universities relied on the latest methods of thought and innovative ways of teaching. However, the bulk of these ideas, as seen in the natural sciences, involved questioning and reexamining old ideas, which the students absorbed and would bring to the professional world of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
The quality and quantity of research presented in French Higher Education in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries is of exceptional high caliber due to the number of resources Brockliss has brought to his work. Most of Brockliss’ primary source materials come from French sources, which add creditability to his main argument. In addition to the bibliography, a prosopography is included in the work, that lists the different professors of various subjects, whose works in the period have been examined by Brockliss. Thus, by using such vast resources and then breaking this complex material into four distinguishable chapters, Brockliss is not only successful in convincing the reader of the validity of his argument, but also succeeds in illuminating the readers overall knowledge base on education in these centuries. Indeed, the only weakness to Brockliss work is his expectations and assumptions about the reader. Within various chapters, Brockliss will incorporate French terminology and at times even quote using the French language, which of course assumes that the reader can understand and read French. Fortunately, such incidences are rare in the work, and Brockliss is successful in proving the merits of his argument.
While Brockliss’ main argument centers on the curriculum, he does raise a number of other minor themes within his work. One of the more important themes centers on the motivations for students to attend French Universities and Colleges in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The conditions faced by students at the academic centers were both restrictive and hazardous to say the least, yet students came in large numbers despite these inhibitors. Brockliss argues that the reasons for this rest with the idea, which centers on, “students and professors, then theoretically and legally belonged to a definite and visible social order.” By attending a university, students had legal rights, were exempt from royal and municipal taxes, and could choose their locations of residence with university confines. Obviously, these are important motivators, but students especially in the early nineteenth century were motivated for other reasons altogether. Whatever these reasons may have been, it is clear that Brockliss work has opened the door to a subject that historians have only begun to truly understand.
Bibliography
L.W.B Brockliss, French Higher Education in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth
Centuries (Oxford University Press, 1987).
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