Building Capabilities for a Transnational World: Foreign Languages at the École des Ponts et Chaussées, 1790s–1850s

Résumé :

Scholars have long recognized the importance of transnational knowledge circulation. Yet few historical works deal systematically with the very mechanisms that have enabled such circulation and made it effective and permanent over time. This article aims to fill the void. It charts how the French Corps des Ponts et Chaussées (CPC, Bridges and Roads Engineering Corps), while enjoying a dominant, global position in engineering sciences and education, transformed in the first half of the nineteenth century to embrace an institutional capacity-building process. This involved learning from other countries' accomplishments, especially through two mechanisms: studying foreign languages (Italian and German, then English) and building a library collection with many international, translated books and journals. These institutional mechanisms formalized interactions between French and other nations' engineering communities around the globe. Building a more intense, robust, and permanent form of exchange helped to deal with the nineteenth century's increasingly interconnected and competitive world.