Letters and Social Activism: Voltaire, the Calas Affair, and Mobilizing Public Opinion

This paper examines how the media environment of Enlightenment France was conducive for epistolary social activism through a case study of Voltaire and the Calas Affair. I argue that the sociocultural practices that governed letter writing and material culture in eighteenth-century France were essential in Voltaire’s successful mobilization of public opinion throughout Europe. Voltaire mounted a campaign of letters that circulated widely throughout his vast correspondence network in his efforts to clear Jean Calas’ name. During this time, he deployed what we might refer to today as a “hashtag,” his recognizable rallying cry against religious intolerance “Écrasez l’infâme.” Ultimately, the sets of behaviors that Voltaire engaged in through letter writing in the Calas Affair are a refraction of practices that are familiar to us today in uses of social media, and can illuminate a longer history of mediated social activism and communication strategies for resistance.