Clare Haru Crowston is Chair of the History Department at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and was recently appointed as University Scholar. Dr. Crowston received her B.A. from McGill University in 1988 and her Ph.D. from Cornell University in 1996. She is the author of Credit, Fashion, Sex: Economies of Regard in Old Regime France (Duke University Press, 2013) and Fabricating Women: The Seamstresses of Old Regime France, 1675-1791 (Duke University Press, 2001), which was awarded the Berkshire Prize for the best first book in history by a woman in North America and the Hagley Prize in business history. She is the author of numerous book chapters and articles and is also the co-author of the popular textbooks A History of Western Society (10th edition, Bedford St Martin's) and A History of World Societies (9th edition, Bedford St. Martin's). Her work on the textbooks draws on her own research in early modern history as well as regular teaching of Western Civilization survey classes. She is the recipient of the Queen Prize for excellence in graduate and undergraduate teaching.
"'Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness': New Approaches to the Age of Revolutions (1625-1804)”
This talk will examine the “age of revolutions” extending from the Dutch Revolt against Spain in the early 17th century, through the English Glorious Revolution of 1688 and the American, French and Haitian Revolutions of the late eighteenth century. Historians and public alike have exalted the principles of universal human rights and the values of freedom and individualism that these turning points in history bequeathed to the modern world. While recognizing the importance of this legacy, the talk will draw on recent historical scholarship to complicate the identity and universality of the subjects who made the age of revolution.