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BestsellerE-book
Author Kim, Mi Gyung.

Title The imagined empire : balloon enlightenments in revolutionary Europe / Mi Gyung Kim.

Publication Info. Pittsburgh, Pa. : University of Pittsburgh Press, 2016.

Item Status

Description 1 online resource
text file
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index.
Summary "The hot-air balloon, invented by the Montgolfier brothers in 1783, launched for the second time just days before the Treaty of Paris would end the American Revolutionary War. The ascent in Paris--a technological marvel witnessed by a diverse crowd that included Benjamin Franklin--highlighted celebrations of French military victory against Britain and ignited a balloon mania that swept across Europe at the end of the Enlightenment. This popular frenzy for balloon experiments, which attracted hundreds of thousands of spectators, fundamentally altered the once elite audience for science by bringing aristocrats and commoners together. The Imagined Empire explores how this material artifact, the flying machine, not only expanded the public for science and spectacle but inspired utopian dreams of a republican monarchy that would obliterate social boundaries. The balloon, Mi Gyung Kim argues, was a people-machine, a cultural performance that unified and mobilized the people of France, who imagined an aerial empire that would bring glory to the French nation. This critical history of ballooning considers how a relatively simple mechanical gadget became an explosive cultural and political phenomenon on the eve of the French Revolution"-- Provided by publisher.
Local Note eBooks on EBSCOhost EBSCO eBook Subscription Academic Collection - North America
Subject Enlightenment.
Enlightenment.
Revolutions -- Europe -- History -- 18th century.
Revolutions.
Europe.
History.
Chronological Term 18th century
Subject Ballooning -- Social aspects -- Europe -- History -- 18th century.
Ballooning.
Social aspects.
Hot air balloons -- Social aspects -- Europe -- History -- 18th century.
Hot air balloons.
Genre/Form Electronic books.
Other Form: Print version: Kim, Mi Gyung. Imagined empire. Pittsburgh, Pa. : University of Pittsburgh Press, 2016 (DLC) 2016054047
ISBN 9780822981954 (electronic book)
0822981955 (electronic book)
9780822944652 (hardback)
0822944650