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Internally, they cultivated a culture of conversation. Often guided by
manuals, the members aimed at witty and inspired discourse, and in
their debates covered a wide range of topics from moral and aesthetic
matters to questions of public improvement and the latest gossip.
If these two sides of daily life linked clubs and societies closely to
the Enlightenment, a third aspect is more mundane. As Clark stresses
repeatedly, conviviality was perhaps the main appeal of many
associations. Eating, drinking, singing, and gambling in congenial
company was an integral part of the associational experience, often
resulting, however, in excesses. Heavy drinking, indecent songs, and
swearing were common features of all societies, especially during the
annual feasts, which almost always ended in drinking bouts. Only in
the later parts of the century were such abuses curtailed under the
impact of a culture of politeness and sensibility. Nevertheless, conviviality
remained essential to associational life, although it is usually
unduly neglected in German studies of the topic.
In fact, German scholars might learn a great deal from Clark’s
book, especially from his broad analysis of the social factors behind
the rise of the associations. While German scholars have long associated
the increase in societies with the growth of the Enlightened
Bildungsbürgertum (educated middle class) and its mainly intellectual
concerns, Clark places the voluntary societies in the context of a
prosperous and highly commercialized society characterized by the
‘Consumer Revolution’ (p. 144). In Clark’s account belonging to a
society evolved into a form of conspicuous consumption. The
demand for sociability and entertainment was at least as important as
the Enlightened obsession with utilitarian measures or intellectual
debate in explaining the success of clubs and societies. Although
there are limits to how far models derived from a more modern
British society can be applied to the German case, adopting a perspective
similar to Clark’s could open up whole new avenues of
research.
On the other hand, Clark’s book would have benefited from a
closer look at conditions on the Continent. He repudiates any external
influence on the development of British associations without recognizing
that many of the seemingly autochthonic features, like
social composition or range of activities, were common European
property. A comparative perspective would also have allowed an
even better understanding of the enormous dynamic behind the
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A War of Words?