The mid-eighteenth century witnessed a

particularly intense conflict between the

Enlightenment philosophes and their enemies,

when intellectual and political confrontation

became inseparable from a battle for public

opinion. Logan J. Connors underscores the

essential role that theatre played in these

disputes.

This is a fascinating and detailed study of the

dramatic arm of France's war of ideas in which

the author examines how playwrights sought to

win public support by controlling every aspect

of theatrical production - from advertisements,

to performances, to criticism. An expanding

theatre-going public was recognised as both a

force of influence and a force worth influencing.

By analysing the most indicative examples

of France's polemical theatre of the period,

Les Philosophes by Charles Palissot (1760) and

Voltaire's Le Café ou L'Ecossaise (1760), Connors

explores the emergence of spectators as active

agents in French society, and shows how theatre

achieved an unrivalled status as a cultural

weapon on the eve of the French Revolution.

Adopting a holistic approach, Connors provides

an original view of how theatre productions

'worked' under the ancien régime , and discusses

how a specific polemical atmosphere in the

eighteenth century gave rise to modern notions

of reception and spectatorship.