Today, we accept that political discussion will include terms and numbers from accounting: budget deficits and surpluses. These are the modern terms of political accountability. They are so common that we take them for granted. And while they had existed in private and public debate since the seventeenth century, they only became common parlance in the period of the French Revolution. Examining a series of original documents, this talk explains why and the process by which it happened in France, a country with little financial literacy and on the brink of catastrophic bankruptcy.

Event Schedule:

1:30-2:30 p.m. Jacob Soll Talk
2:30-3:00 p.m. Commentators: Bill Maurer (Anthropology, UCI), Renee Raphael (History, UCI), and Paul Dourish (Informatics, UCI)
3:00-4:00 p.m. General Discussion
4:00-5:00 p.m. Small reception