Europe against Revolution: Conservatism, Enlightenment, and the Making of the Past

Description

Contemporary Europe seems to be divided between progressive cosmopolitans sympathetic to the European Union and the ideals of the Enlightenment, and counter-enlightened conservative nationalists extolling the virtues of homelands threatened by globalised elites and mass migration. This study seeks to uncover the roots of historically informed ideas of Europe, while at the same time underlining the fundamental differences between the writings of the older counter-revolutionary Europeanists and their self-appointed successors and detractors in the twenty-first century. In the decades around 1800, the era of the French Revolution, counter-revolutionary authors from all over Europe defended European civilisation against the onslaught of nationalist revolutionaries, bent on the destruction of the existing order, or so they believed. In opposition to the new revolutionary world of universal and abstract principles, the counter-revolutionary publicists proclaimed the concept of a gradually developing European society and political order, founded on a set of historical and - ultimately divine - institutions that had guaranteed Europe's unique freedom, moderation, diversity, and progress since the fall of the Roman Empire. These counter-revolutionary Europeanists drew on the cosmopolitan Enlightenment and simultaneously criticized its alleged revolutionary legacy. Throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, these ideas of European history and civilisation were rediscovered and adapted to new political contexts, shaping in manifold ways our contested idea of European history and memory until today. Cover Europe against Revolution: Conservatism, Enlightenment, and the Making of the Past Copyright Dedication Acknowledgements Contents Prologue: Politics of the Past 1: The Ancient Edifice 1. Historical Europeanism 2. Constructing European History 3. The Fragmented Continent 4. The Politics of the (Counter-)Enlightenment 5. Cosmopolitanism Against Revolution 6. The Age of Counter-Revolution 7. Conservative Europeanism 8. Circulation of Concepts 9. The Protagonists 2: An Unfinished History 1. A Cosmopolitan Revolutionary 2. The Enlightenment and the Past 3. A Canon of European Historians 4. Esoteric Europeanism 5. Modern versus Ancient History 6. Germanic Liberty versus Clerical Tyranny 7. Perjuring Kings 8. Conclusion: A Revolutionary Narrative 3: The Philosopher’s Apprentice 1. History against Philosophy 2. An Anti-Enlightened Cosmopolitan 3. Counter-Enlightenment International 4. The Gentle Continent 5. A Historical Dictionary 6. Providential Chronology 7. War against Unbelief 8. Philosophy and Revolution 9. The New Dark Ages 10. Conclusion: Counter-Enlightened Pessimism and Renewal 4: Crusaders for Moderation 1. A Boundless Perspective 2. From Office to Exile 3. Daughters of Thessaly 4. The Exile Press 5. The European Commonwealth 6. Crusaders against Revolution 7. A Decisive Moment 8. Conquering the Spirits 9. Conclusion: Ancient Constitution and European Commonwealth 5: Equilibrium against Empire 1. Anti-Imperial Pluralism 2. The Enlightened Equilibrium 3. ‘Perpetual Peace’ and Its Discontents 4. A Counter-Revolutionary Balance 5. A German Montesquieu 6. A Christ-centred Cosmopolis 7. Romantic Cosmopolitanism 8. Conclusion: European Regeneration and National Renewal 6: The Pluralist Republic 1. The European Republic 2. From Mainz to Frankfurt 3. Inventing Pluralism 4. Liberty, Diversity, and Progress 5. Economic and Moral Pluralism 6. A Counter-Revolutionary Equilibrium 7. A New Carolingian Empire 8. Principles for a European Peace 9. Conclusion: From Enlightenment to Counter-Revolution 7: Ancient and Modern State Systems 1. A Historian of Europe 2. Academic Impartiality 3. Universal History and Staatenhistorie 4. History and Law 5. Ancients and Moderns 6. Rise of the Modern Balance 7. Consolidation, Decline, and Restoration 8. Empire and State System 9. Conclusion: A Counter-Revolutionary Matrix 8: Vienna as a Missed Opportunity 1. La vacance du pouvoir 2. Peace and Security 3. Constructing an Enlightened Order 4. ‘Now or Never’ 5. Christian Europeanism 6. Dying with Europe 7. A Papal Order 8. A Cosmopolitan Maistre? 9. Conclusion: The European Moment and Its Discontents 9: Revivals of Historical Europeanism 1. Conservative Cosmopolitans 2. Counter-Revolution and Empire 3. Beyond Ideological Boundaries 4. Unbelief and Revolution 5. Discordia Concors 6. Hegel and Guizot 7. Hallam and Thorbecke 8. Post-war Revivals 9. Coda: The Making of a Tradition Bibliography Archival sources Printed primary sources (until 1950) Secondary sources Index