ABSTRACT
Just as historians have analyzed the social conflicts of eighteenth-century France and the ups and downs of its economy in the light of the revolutionary crisis of 1789, so they have studied the thought and culture of the era for clues to the coming upheaval. During the 1760s, the philosophes gradually infiltrated the institutions of official culture, particularly the prestigious royally sponsored Academie francaise. The influence of the philosophes spread through the institution of the salon. Compared to the culture of France’s elites, popular culture remained more influenced by religion and by traditions that the upper classes were quick to dismiss as “superstitions.” Exactly where the social frontier that divided “public” from “people” lay was uncertain, but educated French men and women were certain that the culture they participated in was not that of the mass of the peasantry and the urban lower classes. Along with Voltaire, Baron de Montesquieu was one of the major figures of the French Enlightenment.
