C.-F. Volney and the Book of Destiny: A Life Among Giants in the Age of Revolutions

ABSTRACTS: Constantin-François Chassebeuf de Boisgirais (1757–1820), known for generations by his pseudonym Volney, was a French revolutionary philosopher, author, traveler, naturalist, historian, teacher, moralist, linguist, and legislator. He was active in momentous political events of what has since become known as the transatlantic Age of Revolutions, and was personally close to many of the giants of the age in the Old World and the New. His life and legacy offer unexplored, unique perspectives on the leaders as well as on the triumphs and the tragedies of the times. But his name, renowned on both sides of the Atlantic during his lifetime and for more than a century beyond, is today unknown to many and is fading in the histories of the age. Through the lens of his life among the giants, his long and intimate relationships with Thomas Jefferson and Napoleon Bonaparte in particular, and his legacy in political and religious philosophy, history, science, literature, art, linguistic scholarship, and more, this essay makes the case that Volney’s name deserves to be refreshed in the histories of his revolutionary age.