Pierre-Samuel Du Pont de Nemours (1739-1817) is best known as a significant Enlightenment Physiocrat and economist, and, sometimes, as the ancestor of the famous industrial dynasty. But his thought and action are of an often-unsuspected richness. From Louis XV to the Restoration, between France and his American exiles, Du Pont de Nemours established himself as a prominent public figure, exploring an astonishing variety of issues, beginning as a bold reformer of the monarchy before becoming a moderate Republican.

Bringing together an interdisciplinary team, this edited volume explores the myriad facets of Du Pont, as journalist, political thinker, administrator, publisher, legislator, diplomat, jurist, entrepreneur, playwright, and more. This book aims to reveal some of his most remarkable feature: it takes him out of solely the realm of physiocratic studies and the history of economic thought, and focuses on his thought and action, as well as on the legal history, administration, political, social, and even religious ideas. Far from being a pale reflection of a century marked by great democratic revolutions and the rise of capitalism, his work and his career mark the dimensions of a new world that he helped to shape.

Anthony Mergey is a professor of legal history at Paris-Panthéon-Assas University and a member of the Institut d'histoire du droit. His research focuses primarily on the history of political ideas, the history of the state, and the history of administration in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Arnault Skornicki is an Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Paris Nanterre and a member of the ISP. A specialist in the history of political and economic thought, he is currently completing a book on the "roi citoyen" in France and the United Kingdom in the 18th century.