Mcgill-Queen's University Press Reynard, P: Ambitions Tamed

In Ambitions Tamed, Pierre Reynard profiles Morand's career to provide a case-study of the possibilities of urban reform and refashioning within the courtly society of the Old Regime. Morand's story offers fascinating insights into social and professional advancement in a society defined by privilege, the workings of a complex urban political culture, relationships between a provincial city and the capital, the role of factions in determining the success or failure of enterprises and reforms, and the technical and financial aspects of late eighteenth-century urban projects. Ambitions Tamed illuminates the literature and methodologies of urban development, economic and entrepreneurial history, intellectual history, and environmental history in order to explain more fully the relationships among enlightened principles, established power structures, and new initiatives at the dawn of urban expansion.