Stephen Sawyer
Professor
- Department: History and Politics
- Office:609
- Office Hours:By appointment
Stephen W. Sawyer is the Ballantine-Leavitt Professor of History and Director of the Center for Critical Democracy Studies. Sawyer came to 黑料正能量 from the University of Chicago center in Paris and the Ecole Normale Sup茅rieure-rue d鈥橴lm where he was lecturer in the final years of his dissertation. After receiving fellowships from the EHESS, Fulbright, and Sciences Po, Sawyer served as part-time assistant to Pierre Rosanvallon at the Coll猫ge de France. A specialist in political history and theory, Sawyer earned his PhD at the University of Chicago. He has served on the editorial board of the Annales. Histoire, Sciences Sociales and as the Associate Editor for its English version since 2012. In 2014-15, he was named inaugural Neubauer Collegium Fellow at the University of Chicago. Appointed Directeur de publications of The Tocqueville Review/La Revue Tocqueville in 2014, he founded the online platform Tocqueville21 in 2017. In 2018-2019, he was named research fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University. In Spring 2020 he was invited Kratter Visiting Professor to the History Department at Stanford University.
The core of his project articulates a history and theory of democracy as a mode of popular magistrature, administration and public regulation. The project advances along two dimensions: first, a critical intellectual history featuring a close rereading of key texts and authors that may be read surprisingly differently when one places democracy 鈥 rather than liberalism or republicanism 鈥 at the center of our histories of political modernity. Second, the project turns on a rediscovery and re-prioritization of the variety of substantive and concrete activities, programs, and policies that have constituted democratic action. The first volume of this project was published in 2018 under the title Demos Assembled: Democracy and the International Origins of the Modern State, 1840-1880 (University of Chicago Press). It was followed by a monograph entitled La contingence et le pouvoir (Armand Colin, 2018). This book, focusing on the highly contentious figure Adolphe Thiers, further elaborated the project鈥檚 methodology, 鈥渁 pragmatic history of the political.鈥 He is currently preparing the second volume on Regulation and the Birth of the Democratic Social Contract, 1810-1850. The project as a whole self-consciously builds on late twentieth-century, primarily French, democratic and social theory. Sawyer has explored this work and its legacy in a series of edited volumes, including: In Search of the Liberal Moment: Democracy, Antitotalitarianism and Intellectual Politics in France since 1950 (Palgrave/Macmillan, 2016); Pierre Rosanvallon's Political Thought (Bielefeld University Press, 2018); Michel Foucault, Neoliberalism and Beyond (Rowman and Littlefield, 2019); and his translation of Michel Foucault's lectures Wrong-Doing, Truth-Telling: The Function of Avowal in Justice (University of Chicago Press, 2014). The international, historical and theoretical dimensions of this project have been explicitly elaborated in a series of co-edited volumes with his colleagues William Novak and James Sparrow, including Beyond Stateless Democracy (Tocqueville Review, Spring 2015), A Comparative History of the French and American Democratic States (Tocqueville Review, 2012) and Boundaries of the State in US History (University of Chicago Press, 2015). Alongside these 9 volumes, the project includes over sixty articles, book chapters and reviews, in six countries and leading journals including The American Historical Review, Annales. Histoire, Sciences sociales, The Journal of Modern History, Modern Intellectual History, The European History Quarterly and The Tocqueville Review.
Education/Degrees
- PhD, University of Chicago
- MA, University of Chicago
- BA, Hanover College
News
Stephen Sawyer will be publishing his book听听with University of Chicago Press in January 2025 and has been invited to spend the 2024-2025 academic year at the Center for European Studies, Harvard University to begin work on the next volume of his history of the demos.
Publications
叠辞辞办蝉听
- 2018.听Demos Assembled:听Democracy and the International Origins of the Modern State, 1840-1880听(Chicago: University of Chicago Press)
- 2018.听Adolphe Thiers ou la contingence et le pouvoir听(Paris: Armand Colin)
Edited Volumes and Translations
- 2019.听Michel Foucault, Neoliberalism and Beyond, co-editor with Daniel Steinmetz-Jenkins (Rowman and Littlefield).
- 2018.听Pierre Rosanvallon鈥檚 Interdisciplinary Political Thought,听co-editor with听Oliver Fl眉gel-Martinsen, Franziska Martinsen, Daniel Schulz (University of Bielefeld Press)
- 2016. Co-editor (with Iain Stewart) In Search of the Liberal Moment: Democracy, Anti-totalitarianism and Intellectual Politics in France, 1950 to present (New York: Palgrave)
- 2015. Co-editor (with James T. Sparrow and William Novak), Boundaries of the State in United States History (Chicago: University of Chicago Press)
- 2014. Co-editor (with Etienne Anheim, Romain Bertrand and Antoine Lilti),
- 2014. . Bernard Harcourt and Fabienne Brion, eds. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press).
- 2012. Editor, special issue on 鈥.鈥 The Tocqueville Review/La Revue Tocqueville, Vol. XXXIII, n掳 2
- 2011. Editor,, Report submitted to the City of Paris, 195 pps, 55 maps and illustrations.
- 2009. Co-editor with Jan Goldstein, edited volume of conference papers Paris-Chicago: Urban Cultures in Comparative Perspective. Special volume of the Cahiers Parisiens/Parisian Notebooks (Paris: University of Chicago Center in Paris).
Articles and Book Chapters
- 2020 鈥淲as There an American Concept of Emergency Powers? John Dewey, Carl Schmitt, and the Democratic Politics of Exception,鈥 in听States of Exception in American History, Gary Gerstle and Joel Isaac, eds. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press)
- 2019. 鈥淪ocial Freedom, Democracy and the Political: Three Reflections on Axel Honneth鈥檚 Idea of Socialism鈥 (with William J. Novak and James T. Sparrow),听The Tocqueville Review/La Revue Tocqueville, Spring 2019.
- 2019. 鈥淚ntroduction鈥 (with Daniel Steinmetz-Jenkins) to听Foucault, Neoliberalism and Beyond听(Rowman Littlefield)
- 2018. 鈥淧ierre Rosanvallon鈥檚 Pragmatic Turn鈥 in听Pierre Rosanvallon鈥檚 Interdisciplinary Political Thought听(U Bielefeld Press)
- 2018. Introduction to Pierre Rosanvallon鈥檚 Political Thought (with听Oliver Fl眉gel-Martinsen, Franziska Martinsen, Daniel Schulz) in听Pierre Rosanvallon鈥檚 Interdisciplinary Political Thought,听co-editor with听Oliver Fl眉gel-Martinsen, Franziska Martinsen, Daniel Schulz (University of Bielefeld Press)
- 2018. 鈥淔rom the Aristocratic to the Democratic State: Louis Blanc and the Origins of the Modern State.鈥澨Louis XIV: 300 ans apr猫s. Charles-Edouard Levillain ed. Paris: Honor茅 Champion
- 2018. 鈥溍塴ie Hal茅vy ou les d茅fis de l鈥櫭塼at d茅mocratique.鈥澨Autour d鈥橢lie Hal茅vy et l鈥櫭坮e des tyrannies, Vincent Duclert et Marie Scot, eds., Paris: Belles Lettres.
- 2017. 鈥淒emocratic States of Unexception: Toward a New Genealogy of the American Political,鈥 (with William J. Novak and James T. Sparrow) in听The Many Hands of the State, Ann Orloff and Kimberly Morgan, eds. Cambridge University Press.
- 2016. 鈥淎 Fiscal Revolution: Statecraft in France鈥檚 Early Third Republic鈥澨American Historical Review. October 2016.听
- 2016. 鈥淲e will always have Paris: Scales of Political Culture in Paris, 1900-1940.鈥 Review Essay, The Journal of World History.
- 2016. 鈥淣eoliberalism and the Crisis of Democratic Theory,鈥 In Search of the Liberal Moment: Democracy, Anti-totalitarianism and Intellectual Politics since the 1950s (New York: Palgrave).
- 2016. 鈥淣ew Perspectives on France鈥檚 鈥楲iberal Moment鈥欌 (with Iain Stewart) In Search of the Liberal Moment: Democracy, Anti-totalitarianism and Intellectual Politics in Post-War France (New York: Palgrave).
- 2015.听鈥淭ime after Time: Narratives of the Longue Dur茅e in the Anthropocene鈥 Transatlantica, 1/2015
- 2015. 鈥淏eyond Stateless Democracy鈥 (with James T. Sparrow and William Novak), The Tocqueville Review, Spring, vol 36, no 1.
- 2015. 鈥淔oucault and the State,鈥 The Tocqueville Review, Spring, vol 36, no 1.
- 2015. 鈥淚ntroduction: Boundaries of the State in US History鈥 (with James T. Sparrow and William Novak) in Boundaries of the State in U.S. History (University of Chicago Press).
- 2015. 鈥淏eyond Tocqueville鈥檚 Myth: Rethinking Models of the Liberal State鈥 in Boundaries of the State in U.S. History (University of Chicago Press)
- 2014. 鈥淐es nations fa莽onn茅es par les empires et la globalization. R茅茅crire le r茅cit national du XIXe si猫cle aujourd鈥檋ui鈥 published in English under the title, 鈥淭he Nation-States that Globalization and Empires Made: Writing the Nineteenth-Century National Narrative Today.鈥 Annales. Histoire et Sciences Sociales. 2014 (1): pp. 117-137.
- 2013. 鈥淓mancipation, and the Creation of Modern Liberal States in America and France,鈥 (with William Novak) The Journal of the Civil War Era, Vol. 3, No 4, December 2013, pp. 467-500.
- 2013 鈥淎n American Model for French Liberalism: The State of Exception in Edouard Laboulaye鈥檚 Constitutional Thought.鈥 The Journal of Modern History 4 (2013): pp 739-771.
- 2012. 鈥淭oward a History of the Democratic State,鈥 (with William Novak and James Sparrow)听The Tocqueville Review/La Revue Tocqueville, Vol. XXXIII, n掳 2.
- 2012. 鈥淭he Liberal Origins of Louis Blanc鈥檚 Republican State,鈥 The Tocqueville Review/La Revue Tocqueville, Vol. XXXIII, n掳 2.
- 2011. 鈥淯n Moment Atlantique ? : La F锚te de la F茅d茅ration et les r茅seaux franco-am茅ricains sous la R茅volution fran莽aise,鈥 La F锚te de la F茅d茅ration. Du 14 juillet 1790. Histoire et h茅ritage. Georges-Henri Soutou, ed. with E. Leroy Ladurie.
- 2010.听 鈥淭he Infinite Space of the Particular: Planning the American City in the work of Louis Sullivan, Daniel Burnham and Frank Lloyd Wright,鈥 Cultural Transformations in the English Speaking World (Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Press), pp 152-169.
- 2009.听 鈥淒茅finir un int茅r锚t particulier parisien : les 茅lections et l鈥檃dministration municipal de Paris au milieu du XIXe si猫cle,鈥 Annales. Histoire et Sciences Sociales, no 2, pp 407-433.
- 2009. 鈥淭he Site of Generality: Placing Chicago in the American Regime of Commensurability鈥 in Paris-Chicago: Urban Cultures in Comparative Perspective. Cahiers Parisiens. Vol. 5 (University of Chicago-Paris).
- 2009.听 鈥淓douard Laboulaye et la statue de la libert茅鈥 La lettre du Coll猫ge de France, no 26.
- 2009.听 鈥淭he French Foundations of the American Capital: Eighteenth-Century French Political Theory and the Creation of Washington D.C.鈥 La France en Am茅rique. Susanne Berthier-Foglar, ed. (脡ditions de l'universit茅 de Savoie), pp 187-205.
- 200.9听 鈥淛e peins le passage: Police Power in Foucault鈥檚 1978-1979 Coll猫ge de France lectures,鈥 Carceral Notebooks, Bernard Harcourt, ed. vol 4, pp 131-137.
- 2008.听 鈥淧lacing Sovereignty: Democratic capitals as an histoire-probl猫me,鈥 La Revue Tocqueville, Vol. XXIX, n掳 2, pp 95-110.
- 2007.听 鈥淎 Question of Life or Death: Administrative Bodies and Administrating Bodies in Nineteenth-Century Paris,鈥 in Fields of Expertise: A Comparative History of Expert Procedures in Paris and London, 1600 to present. C. Rabier, ed. (Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Press), pp. 291-315.
- 2005.听 鈥淟ocating the Center: Confining and Defining the Capital through the Parisian Fortifications.鈥 Special issue on Centers and Peripheries. Nottingham French Studies. February, pp 20-37.
- 2002. Pamphlets and Periodicals from the Revolution of 1848. Interactive and fully searchable on-line database of over 200 rare and previously unavailable newspapers and pamphlets from the 1848 Revolution in France
History and literature
- Manuscript in progress Veridiction and the Liberal State of Exception in Herman Melville鈥檚 Billy Budd, Sailor
- 2008.听 鈥淏etween Authorship and Agency: Democracy as History in the Work of George Bancroft,鈥 Revue fran莽aise d鈥櫭﹖udes am茅ricaines, no. 118, vol. 4, pp 49-66.
- 2008.听 鈥淰aluable Values: Capitalizing on Representation in Theodore Dreiser鈥檚 Sister Carrie,鈥 尝鈥橝谤驳别苍迟, Presses Universitaires de Lille.
- 2006. 鈥淗istory and the Strength of the American Republic in Nathaniel Hawthorne's the Scarlet Letter,鈥 Philippe Jaworski, ed. Hawthorne et la pens茅e du roman. Dix 茅tudes sur la Lettre 茅carlate. Paris: Michel Houdiard.
Contemporary urban studies
- 2014.听(with DellaPosta, D.J., Clark, T.N., and Dini, A.) 鈥淐ivic and Arts Activities Can Energize Politics, France and Europe鈥 in T.N. Clark (ed.) Can Tocqueville听 Karaoke? Global Contrasts of Citizen Participation, the Arts, and Development, Research in Urban Policy, volume 11, Bingley, United Kingdom: Emerald
- Manuscript in progress (with Scott Salmon) Downscaling Competitive City Discourse: Local Forces in the Age of Global Megaevents.
- Forthcoming (with C茅dric F茅riel) 鈥淟a petite travers茅e du Grand Paris. Vers l鈥檃ppr茅hension globale des 鈥渁mbiances鈥 dans l鈥檈space m茅tropolitain". Cahiers de recherche de l鈥檌nstitut pour la ville et le commerce, Finalist (1 of 3) for a prize of 2500 euros for best article by the Institut pour la ville et le commerce.
- 2013. 鈥淎n Archaeology of the Parisian Underground鈥 in Paris-Amsterdam Underground: Essays on Cultural Resistance, Subversion, and Diversion, Andrew Hussey and Christophe Linder, eds. (University of Amsterdam Press).
- 2012. 鈥淲hat鈥檚 in the Fridge? Counter-Democratic Mobilization in Post-Industrial Urban 鈥楥ultural鈥 Development鈥 The Politics of Urban Cultural Policy. Daniel Silver and Carl Grodach, eds. (Routledge).
- 2012. (lead author with Terry Clark) 鈥淟a politique culturelle et la d茅mocratie m茅tropolitaine 脿 l鈥檃ge de la defiance.鈥 Politiques culturelles 21 : D茅bats et enjeux en Europe. Guy Saez et Jean-Pierre Saez, dir. (Editions de la d茅couverte).
- 2012. (with Mathias Rouet) 鈥淭he Grand Paris: Cultural Milieu in the Process of Metropolitanization.鈥 Cultural Policy and Governance in a New Metropolitan Age. Cultures and Globalization Series, vol 5. Helmut Annheier, Yudhishthir Raj Isser, and Michael Hoelscher, eds. (Sage Publications).
- 2011. Is There a Place for More Moli猫re? Cultural Planning and Metropolitan Politics in the Grand Paris Territorio.
- 2011. 鈥淎nting or the Antinomies of Ex-urban Shanghai鈥 Public. Art Culture Ideas, vol 43, Special issue on the suburbs. Spring 2011.
- 2010. (lead author with Terry Clark) 鈥淰illes cr茅atives ou voisinages dynamiques? D茅veloppement m茅tropolitain et ambiances urbaines.鈥 La Revue des politiques culturelles, pp 44-49.
Encyclopedia articles
- 2012. "Paris". Global Studies Encyclopedia. Sage Publications.
- 2009. "1848". Encyclopedia of Revolutions, Uprisings and Popular Movements. Blackwell.
- 2009. "Hotel de Ville". Encyclopedia of Revolutions, Uprisings and Popular Movements. Blackwell.
- 2005. "Duvergier de Hauranne, Ernest". Encyclopedia of French-American Relations. Ed. Bill Marshall. ABC-Clio.
Book reviews and review essays
- 2020.听La modernit茅 d茅senchant茅. Relire l鈥檋istoire du XIXe si猫cle fran莽ais by Emmanuel Fureix and Fran莽ois Jarrige (Paris听: La D茅couverte, 2015), Annales. Histoire, Sciences Sociales.
- 2019.听Moralizing the Market: How Gaullist France Embraced the US Model of Securities Regulation by Yves-Marie P茅r茅on (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2017), American Historical Review.
- 2019. Paris Ville Ouvri猫re听by Maurizio Gribaudi (Paris: La D茅couverte, 2014),听Annales. Histoire, Sciences Sociales.
- 2018. The Transformation of the World: A Global History of the Nineteenth Century听by Jurgen Osterhammel (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2014),听Annales. Histoire, Sciences Sociales
- 2018. Transparency in Postwar France: A Critical History of the听Present by Stefanos Geroulanos (Palo Alto: Stanford University Press, 2017),听H-Diplo
- 2018. The Once and Future Liberal: After Identity Politics听by Mark Lilla,听Tocqueville21
- 2018. Toward Democracy by James T. Kloppenberg (New York: Oxford University Press, 2016) Journal of Politics, Ideology and Religion
- 2016. Gold and Freedom: The Political Economy of Reconstruction, by Nicolas Barreyre (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2015). Le Mouvement social
- 2016.听The Making of Tocqueville鈥檚 America: Law and Association in the Early United States (Chicago: University of Chicago Press) by Kevin Butterfield, Journal of Interdisciplinary History.
- 鈥淗ouellebecq. Deformed Symmetries,鈥 review of Michel Houellebecq, Soumission, Los Angeles Review of Books.
- Jean-Numa Ducange, La R茅volution fran莽aise et l鈥檋istoire du monde. Deux si猫cles de d茅bats historiques et politiques 1815-1991, Paris, Armand Colin, 2014, 634 p. 302.
- Jean JAURES, Histoire socialiste de la R茅volution fran莽aise, Michel BIARD, Jean-Numa DUCANGE, eds, (Paris, Les 茅ditions sociales, 2014) Cahiers Jaur猫s
- Jonathan M. House, Controlling Paris: Armed Forces and Counter-Revolution, 1789-1848 (New York : NYU Press, 2014) The Journal of Modern History
- Pierre-Xavier Boyer, Angleterre et Am茅rique dans l鈥檋istoire institutionnelle fran莽aise, 1789-1958 (Paris: CNRS, 2012) Cahiers Jaur猫s
- 2014. Mona Ozouf, Jules Ferry. La libert茅 et la tradition (Paris : Gallimard, 2014) Cahiers Jaur猫s
- 2014.听Suzanne Desan, Lynn Hunt and William Max Nelson, The French Revolution in Global Perspective (Ithaca : Cornell University Press, 2012) French History
- 2013. Quentin Deluermoz. Les Policiers dans la ville. La construction d'un ordre public 脿 Paris (1854-1914) (Paris: Publications de la Sorbonne, 2012) H-France
- 2013. R茅my Cazals, ed. Le mouvement Saint-Simonien. De Sor猫ze 脿 l鈥櫭塯ypte (脡ditions Midi-Pyr茅n茅es, 2012) Cahiers Jaur猫s
- 2013. Charles Rearick. Paris Dreams, Paris Memories: The City and its Mystique (Stanford University Press, 2011) French History.
- 2013. Quentin Deluermoz. Les Policiers dans la ville. La construction d'un ordre public 脿 Paris (1854-1914) (Paris: Publications de la Sorbonne, 2012) H-France
- 2013. R茅my Cazals, ed. "Le mouvement Saint-Simonien. De Sor猫ze 脿 l鈥櫭塯ypte" (脡ditions Midi-Pyr茅n茅es, 2012) Cahiers Jaur猫s
- 2013. Julian Wright and H.S. Jones, eds.,听Pluralism and the Idea of the Republic in France听(Palgrave, 2012) Cahiers Jaur猫s.
- 2012. James T. Sparrow. "The Warfare State: World War II Americans and the Age of Big Government" (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011). La vie des id茅es.
- 2012. Bruno Verlet, "Des pionniers au Texas (1850-1880)" (Paris: Verlet, 2011) Cahiers Jaur猫s.
- 2012. Jean-Fabien Spitz. Louis Blanc. "Textes Politiques (1839-1852)" (Paris: Bord de l鈥檈au/Biblioth猫que R茅publicaine, 2011) Cahiers Jaur猫s.
- 2012. Gilles Malandain. "L鈥檌ntrouvable complot. Attentant, enqu锚te et rumeur dans la France de la Restauration" (Paris: EHESS, 2011) Cahiers Jaur猫s.
- 2011. Nathalie Jakobowicz. 1830. Le peuple de Paris. R茅volution et repr茅sentations sociales (Rennes : Presses Universitaires de Rennes, 2009). Annales. Histoires et Sciences Sociales.
- 2011. J. A. W. Gunn. "When the French Tried to Be British: Party, Opposition, and the Quest for Civil Disagreement, 1814-1848" (McGill-Queen鈥檚 University Press, 2009). Journal of Modern History.
- 2011. Jean-Numa Ducange, ed. Jean Jaur猫s-Karl Kautsky: Socialisme et R茅volution Fran莽aise (pr茅face de Michelle Vovelle) (Paris: Demopolis, 2010). Cahiers Jean Jaur猫s
- 2010. Jacqueline Lalouette. "Les mots de 1848" (Presses Universitaires de Mirail, 2007). Cahiers Jean Jaur猫s
- 2010. Fabien Cardoni. "La garde r茅publicaine d鈥檜ne R茅publique 脿 l鈥檃utre (1848-1871)", (Presses universitaires de Rennes/Service historique de la D茅fense, 2008). Cahiers Jean Jaures.
- 2010. John Agnew. "Globalization and Sovereignty" (Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield, 2009). La vie des id茅es,
- 2010. Casey Harrison. "The Stonemasons of the Creuse in Nineteenth-Century Paris" (Cranbury: Associated University Press, 2008). Journal of Modern History.
- 2009. Bernard Marchand. Les ennemis de Paris. "La haine de la grande ville des Lumi猫res 脿 nos jours" (Rennes : Presses universitaires de Rennes, 2009). Cahiers Jean Jaur猫s, 3-4 (N掳 193-194).
- 2009. Michelle Riot-Sarcey et Maurizio Gribaudi. "1848, la R茅volution oubli茅e" (Paris : La Decouverte, 2008). Cahiers Jean Jaur猫s, 3-4 (N掳 193-194).
- 2009. Larry M. Bartels. "Unequal Democracy: The Political Economy of the New Gilded Age" (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2008). La vie des id茅es,
- 2008. Nicholas Papayanis. "Planning Before Haussmann" (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2004). European History Quarterly,听vol 38.
- 2007. Yannick Marec, ed.听Villes en crise? Les politiques municipales face aux pathologies urbaines (fin XVIIIe - fin XXe si猫cle) (Creaphis, 2007). H-France.
Article and lecture translations
- 2008.听 Pierre Rosanvallon, 鈥淒emocratic Universalism as a Historical Problem,鈥
- 2006. Monique David-M茅nard. 鈥淒emocracy and Subjectivity.鈥 Paper given for Trope, Affect, and Democratic Subjectivity at the Center for Global Culture and Communication, Northwestern University.
- 2006. Pierre Rosanvallon. The Democracy of Distrust: Institutions and Practices of Counter-Politics in Historical Perspective. Cours au Coll猫ge de France given for the Sealy Lectures at Cambridge University.
- 2004. Jean-Luc Nancy. 鈥淭he Technique of the Present.鈥 Trans. Agn猫s Derail-Imbert and Stephen W. Sawyer. In On Kawara: Paintings of 40 Years. New York: David Werner.
Research Areas
* Democracy, democratization, liberalism听
* Transformations of the modern state, state-civil society relations听
* Urban policy, Cultural planning听
* Urban social and political movements听
* European political theory, Political thought听
* French and European politics