Helena Rosenblatt: “The Banker Who Brought Down the Old Regime: The Political Economy of Jacques Necker (1732-1804)”
Nov. 30, 2021 | 6 p.m. MT | HUMN 135 | In-person and live stream | Free and open to the public
Part of the Benson Center's 2021-22 "Capitalism and Ethics" Lecture Series
ŷڱƵ the Lecture
Jacques Necker was finance minister to the King of France, Louis XVI. Necker raised the loans that caused the debt crisis, and which, in turn, launched the French Revolution of 1789. Despite the fact that he was such an important figure, and an original thinker, his ideas have been relatively neglected until now. Necker’s life and work shed light on the origins, and nature, of French liberalism.
ŷڱƵ the Speaker
Helena Rosenblatt is professor of history, political science and French at the Graduate Center, ŷڱƵNY. She is the author of Rousseau and Geneva. From the First Discourse to the Social Contract, 1749-1762 (Cambridge University Press, 1997), Liberal Values: Benjamin Constant and the Politics of Religion (Cambridge University Press, 2008) and, most recently, The Lost History of Liberalism from Ancient Rome to the Twenty-First Century (Princeton University Press, 2018).
ŷڱƵ the Series
This series explores the complex relationship between capitalism and ethics in American culture and in Western civilization more broadly. Topics include capitalism and virtue, the history of American philanthropy, and the relationship between ethics and economics, and capitalism and religion. Lectures will be in person and livestreamed. Please note that masks are currently required in public indoor spaces on the ŷڱƵ Boulder campus regardless of vaccination status. Lectures available on our . Hosted by Alan S. Kahan.