There is no point in denying it: Calling a blog The Republic of Letters is pretentious. I’m unmoved by that objection, however. For, I love the name and, even more so, I love what it betokens. Enlightenment historian Robert Darnton explains:
The eighteenth century imagined the Republic of Letters as a realm with no police, no boundaries, and no inequalities other than those determined by talent. Anyone could join it by exercising the two main attributes of citizenship, writing and reading. Writers formulated ideas, and readers judged them. Thanks to the power of the printed word, the judgments spread in widening circles, and the strongest arguments won.
The word also spread by written letters, for the eighteenth century was a great era of epistolary exchange. Read through the correspondence of Voltaire, Rousseau, Franklin, and Jefferson—each filling about fifty volumes—and you can watch the Republic of Letters in operation. All four writers debated all the issues of their day in a steady stream of letters, which crisscrossed Europe and America in a transatlantic information network.
I love it! A realm where no heed is paid to pedigree but what carries the day are ideas and cogent arguments. This is, indeed, a high ideal, but nonetheless, it is the ideal to which this blog is dedicated. Thus, while politics is our mainstay, our focus will not be exclusive to it but upon broader aspects of our culture– tech, fashion, fitness, food, theology, music and so much more–which makes life as enriched as it is. So I urge you to visit often and, by all means, join the discussion.