Trans-Atlantic Anti-Jacobinism: Reaction and Religion

This article identifies an important transnational political ideology and identity in the Atlantic world in the 1790s-1810s: trans-Atlantic Anti-Jacobinism. Opposition to the French Revolution, although present in individual nations, gained force and variety through connections forged between individuals from the European Continent to Great Britain, Canada, and the United States. Lines of communication that were formed through the practices of writing and printing, correspondence, diplomacy, and travel kept the movement unified against a common enemy. The two most salient elements of this Anti-Jacobinism were concerns over political reaction and religion or, stated differently, vigorous defenses of the established political order and the received religious belief, Protestant or Catholic Christianity. Interlocked, these two main concerns of Anti-Jacobins inspired active response. Ironically, a desire to defend individual nations, political arrangements, and faith traditions led to a political alignment that crossed national boundaries and bound individuals together in a common cause. The formation and operation of Anti-Jacobinism thus occurred simultaneously on subnational and supranational levels, demonstrating the multiple valences of political opinion in the Age of Revolutions.