| Summary: | <br/>This collective biography examines the similarities and differences among the 140 collaborators identified as having written articles for the seventeen folio volumes of text. It discusses the following topics: the family background, formal education, and occupational choice of the encyclopedists; how and where they were recruited for the <em>Encyclopédie</em> and their compensation; their contributions to the work and wheter they were censored or persecuted or both because of them; their political and religious ideas; their productivity in old age; and, for those who lived past 1789, how they reacted to the French Revolution and the reign of Napoleon.<br/> In this book Frank A. kafker challenges a stereotype that has grown up about the Encyclopedits. Many scholars continue a tradition of writing about them as if they were united in a campaign to destroy the Old Regime. But they were, moreover, a varied collection of men of letters, physicians, scientists, craftsmen, scholars, and others, each frequently supporting his own point of view with little central direction. The <em>Encyclopédie</em> became not a party statement but rather a great compendium of knowledge, a mixture of ideas – some progressive and some conservative – filled with contradictions and innovations. <br/><br/> Acknowledgements<br/> Preface<br/> List of maps<br/> A chart of biographical information on the Encyclopedists<br/> Dates of publication of the volumes of the Encyclopédie<br/> Abbreviations<br/> I. Introduction <br/> I. The Encyclopedists before the publication of the Encyclopédie<br/> II. The Encyclopedists from 1751-1787<br/> 2. The regional and institutional centres of the Encyclopedic enterprise<br/> 3. The recruitment and pay of the contributors<br/> 4. The scholarly calibre of the team<br/> 5. The religious and political ideas of the Encyclopédie and the Encyclopedists<br/> 6. The effects of censorship on the Encyclopédie and the Encyclopedists<br/> 7. The effects of persecution on the Encyclopédie and the Encyclopedists<br/> III. The Encyclopedists and the French Revolution<br/> 8. The Encyclopedists and the coming of the French Revolution (1787-1789)<br/> 9. The Encyclopedists and the Reign of Terror (1793-1794)<br/> IV. The later years of the Encyclopedists<br/> 10. Old age and productivity among the Encyclopedists<br/> V. Conclusion<br/> 11. The Encyclopedists and the rule of Napoleon (1799-1815)<br/> Select bibliography<br/> Index<br/>
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