Book contents
- Frontmatter
- CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION
- CHAPTER II ECONOMIC CHANGE IN ENGLAND AND EUROPE, 1780–1830
- CHAPTER III ARMED FORCES AND THE ART OF WAR
- CHAPTER IV REVOLUTIONARY INFLUENCES AND CONSERVATISM IN LITERATURE AND THOUGHT
- CHAPTER V SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
- CHAPTER VI RELIGION: CHURCH AND STATE IN EUROPE AND THE AMERICAS
- CHAPTER VII EDUCATION, AND PUBLIC OPINION
- CHAPTER VIII SOME ASPECTS OF THE ARTS IN EUROPE
- CHAPTER IX THE BALANCE OF POWER DURING THE WARS, 1793–1814
- CHAPTER X THE INTERNAL HISTORY OF FRANCE DURING THE WARS, 1793–1814
- CHAPTER XI THE NAPOLEONIC ADVENTURE
- CHAPTER XII FRENCH POLITICS, 1814–471
- CHAPTER XIII GERMAN CONSTITUTIONAL AND SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT, 1795–1830
- CHAPTER XIV THE AUSTRIAN MONARCHY, 1792–1847
- CHAPTER XV ITALY, 1793–1830
- CHAPTER XVI SPAIN AND PORTUGAL, 1793 TO c. 1840
- CHAPTER XVII LOW COUNTRIES AND SCANDINAVIA
- CHAPTER XVIII RUSSIA, 1798–1825
- CHAPTER XIX THE NEAR EAST AND THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE, 1798–1830
- CHAPTER XX EUROPE'S RELATIONS WITH SOUTH AND SOUTH-EAST Asia
- CHAPTER XXI EUROPE'S ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL RELATIONS WITH TROPICAL AFRICA
- CHAPTER XXII THE UNITED STATES AND THE OLD WORLD, 1794–1828
- CHAPTER XXIII THE EMANCIPATION OF LATIN AMERICA
- CHAPTER XXIV THE FINAL COALITION AND THE CONGRESS OF VIENNA, 1813–15
- CHAPTER XXV INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS, 1815–30
- APPENDIX Note on the French Republican Calendar
- References
CHAPTER IV - REVOLUTIONARY INFLUENCES AND CONSERVATISM IN LITERATURE AND THOUGHT
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 March 2008
- Frontmatter
- CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION
- CHAPTER II ECONOMIC CHANGE IN ENGLAND AND EUROPE, 1780–1830
- CHAPTER III ARMED FORCES AND THE ART OF WAR
- CHAPTER IV REVOLUTIONARY INFLUENCES AND CONSERVATISM IN LITERATURE AND THOUGHT
- CHAPTER V SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
- CHAPTER VI RELIGION: CHURCH AND STATE IN EUROPE AND THE AMERICAS
- CHAPTER VII EDUCATION, AND PUBLIC OPINION
- CHAPTER VIII SOME ASPECTS OF THE ARTS IN EUROPE
- CHAPTER IX THE BALANCE OF POWER DURING THE WARS, 1793–1814
- CHAPTER X THE INTERNAL HISTORY OF FRANCE DURING THE WARS, 1793–1814
- CHAPTER XI THE NAPOLEONIC ADVENTURE
- CHAPTER XII FRENCH POLITICS, 1814–471
- CHAPTER XIII GERMAN CONSTITUTIONAL AND SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT, 1795–1830
- CHAPTER XIV THE AUSTRIAN MONARCHY, 1792–1847
- CHAPTER XV ITALY, 1793–1830
- CHAPTER XVI SPAIN AND PORTUGAL, 1793 TO c. 1840
- CHAPTER XVII LOW COUNTRIES AND SCANDINAVIA
- CHAPTER XVIII RUSSIA, 1798–1825
- CHAPTER XIX THE NEAR EAST AND THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE, 1798–1830
- CHAPTER XX EUROPE'S RELATIONS WITH SOUTH AND SOUTH-EAST Asia
- CHAPTER XXI EUROPE'S ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL RELATIONS WITH TROPICAL AFRICA
- CHAPTER XXII THE UNITED STATES AND THE OLD WORLD, 1794–1828
- CHAPTER XXIII THE EMANCIPATION OF LATIN AMERICA
- CHAPTER XXIV THE FINAL COALITION AND THE CONGRESS OF VIENNA, 1813–15
- CHAPTER XXV INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS, 1815–30
- APPENDIX Note on the French Republican Calendar
- References
Summary
The fact that the French Revolution was something unprecedented, exceptional, and portentous for the future of Europe and perhaps the world did not escape the notice of some contemporaries. Edmund Burke, its fiercest antagonist, perceived as early as 1790 that he was witnessing the first ‘complete revolution’. Kant predicted in 1798 that such a phenomenon could never be obliterated from the memory of mankind. Some twenty-five years later, Stendhal declared: ‘In the two thousand years of recorded world history so sharp a revolution in customs, ideas, and beliefs has perhaps never occurred before.’ Even so critical an observer as the German nationalist Arndt had to admit in retrospect: ‘I should be very ungrateful and also a hypocrite if I did not avow that we owe an immense amount to that savage and crazy revolution … and that it has put ideas into people's heads and hearts which twenty or thirty years before the event most men would have shuddered to conceive of.’
From the very outset the Revolution had a profound impact on Europe's intellectuals. At that early stage delight by far prevailed upon dismay. Indeed, it was widely felt that a new world was opening to the astonished sight. William Wordsworth immortalised that frame of mind in The Prelude:
Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive
And to be young was very heaven.
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- Information
- The New Cambridge Modern History , pp. 91 - 117Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1965