Paul Friedland

Overview

I am a historian of France, specializing in the Revolutionary period. For much of my academic career, I have been interested in the intersection of sovereign authority and representation, power and spectacle. More recently, I have been exploring the rise of sentimentality in 18th century Europe and its relationship to the rhetoric of humanism. I am presently working on two different projects. The first focuses on a rising squeamishness and self-consciousness about the killing of animals in the 18th century and growing calls for more “humane” forms of slaughter. The second traces France’s relationship with its Caribbean colonies from 1794, when the French hoped to export their Revolution to the West Indies and declared the abolition of slavery, to 1802, when Napoleon sought to re-enslave those French citizens who had been freed eight years earlier.