Parler des troubles de l'Europe en s'occupant de l'Amérique: Jean-Esprit Bonnet e le edizioni della Réponse sugli Stati Uniti (1795-1802)

Based on Jean-Esprit Bonnet’s editions of Réponse aux principales questions qui peu- vent être faites sur les États-Unis de l’Amérique, this article shows how the history of American Revolution was pivotal in considering the social and political events of the French Revolution. In the last decade of the 18 th century, writing about the birth of the United States was instrumental in spreading revolutionary ideas and building up a new political culture. The American Constitution could also offer a political example for the French Republic to put an end to the Terror, find a constitutional way to search stability, and get away from the turmoil of Revolution. A study on the two different editions of Bonnet’s work of 1795 and 1802 suggests how underlining divergences and assonances between the two Revolutions was also a strategy to promote or reject political models from Thermidorian to Consulate period.