Quite enjoyable, and much better than I was expecting, as well as/in spite of being one of the least "Dickensian" of his books that I have read (beingQuite enjoyable, and much better than I was expecting, as well as/in spite of being one of the least "Dickensian" of his books that I have read (being a huge fan of that mode), with not nearly the standard or expected amount of hyperbolic characters, descriptions of city life, etc.—perhaps A Tale of Two Cities is its only real sibling in CD's ouevre? For this does come across more as a straight-realist historical novel in that veign, with only the occasional nods back to Pickwick & Co or anticipation of the much more complex majesties of Bleak House or Great Expectations to come. Recommended, though, for completeists and casual CD readers alike. ...more
[Edit: The long-ago promised, much-procrastinated-upon "digested read" is finally done, and can be read on my site! ]
A bracing dayhike over the pe
[Edit: The long-ago promised, much-procrastinated-upon "digested read" is finally done, and can be read on my site! ]
A bracing dayhike over the peaks (from Italian Alps to Scottish Munros...) of early modern intellectual history, where the views are Olympian and sublime (in the sense of vast and paradoxical), one which answers (and quite admirably) the question: how, in the discourse of the 17th and 18th Centuries, did the passion/vice of avarice journey from damnèd to lauded (via the waystation of reluctantly tolerated)?
We take in Mts. Machiavelli, Mandeville, Vico, Montesquieu, Steuert, and Smith along our trek towards an answer, of sorts, to our question—which is to go into our studies like Machiavelli did in the evening (dressed in whatever finery we have on hand, to better forget our daytime travails back down in our—as Nietzsche saw them—ovine Valleys), and converse with these ancient giants at greater length....
I'm putting together what I call a "Digested Read" for this one, and will post a link to that shortly....more
I finished this book over a month ago, but I've been putting off writing a review until I had enough time to do Robertson's book justice, and…well, thI finished this book over a month ago, but I've been putting off writing a review until I had enough time to do Robertson's book justice, and…well, that's never gonna happen, and not just cos I don't have a lot of time for reviewing at the moment: no, doing this book justice is probably only possible by reading its 984 pages again and again. It's that good. In fact, I'd say that it is the single best book on intellectual history that I've ever read.
What do I mean by that last sentence? I guess that this book floored me so much and so often because Robertson really pulled out all of the stops to let as much of the entire "long" eighteenth century speak for itself: by corralling a near-unfathomable number of (not just philosophical) voices from the period, quoting them extensively, and other than providing contextual commentary, largely getting out of the way, so that I always had the impression of eavesdropping on a conversation the Enlightenment was having with itself, across national boundaries, and almost entirely without imposing our own contemporary concerns upon them.
This is accomplished by arranging the material thematically first, and then chronologically only within each chapter, something that, as someone with a bit of a Kronos fetish I suppose, initially balked at but soon warmed to: the effect on me as I travelled through the period again and again and again, first coming to grips with the sometimes agonistic, sometimes complimentary (and never ever reductive)dialogue between reason and the passions; then the complex dance between science, religion, persecution and tolerance (including the birth of new sciences focused upon us humans); then upon relationship between the (newly invented?) public and private "spheres"; and finally the application of all of the above upon the practical terrains of education, agriculture, the arts, political economy, empire, etc., etc., etc. It was all simply breathtaking.
The principal effect of reading this book is to educate oneself in intellectual humility, in human sympathy, and to rob one of all caricatures of what the long eighteenth century meant to itself. In Roberson's own words,
…to identify Enlightenment ‘reason’ with cold, logical calculation, and to think of the period as first and foremost the ‘age of reason’, is to mistake its character. Enlightenment reason is not calculation but argument; it is pursued not by solitary thinkers armed with slide-rules, but by groups whose members often differ in their views and who meet in the settings of Enlightenment sociability. It is often synonymous with ‘good sense’. Even thus understood, reason is only one of the Enlightenment’s core attributes, alongside the passions sentiment and sympathy. […] Enlightened thinking will reject naïve ideas of inevitable progress, even those that originated in the Enlightenment. But it will also steer clear of the pessimism shown by some of the Enlightenment’s harshest critics […] Given that the process of enlightenment consists in criticism and self-criticism, such activity requires an open society. As the film-maker and writer Hanif Kureishi has recently said: ‘The message of the Enlightenment is that we have some choice over who we want to be, making our own destiny as individuals, without submitting to gods, revelation or ancestors. The basis of this is a liberal education and a democracy of ideas.’
Do check out Jan-Maat's and Antonomasia's superb reviews for the weaknesses of this doorstop, but if, like me, your knowledge of 18C Russia = zero, thDo check out Jan-Maat's and Antonomasia's superb reviews for the weaknesses of this doorstop, but if, like me, your knowledge of 18C Russia = zero, this book is a godsend. It has a limpid style to it and, somehow, given its 1100 page (in my edition) length, that I forgive it even those sins which would normally turn me away—"Great Man Theory of History" wedded to an overabundance of military history, during lengthy chapters of which I must confess my eyes more than glazed over. But there is so much else here, so winningly conveyed, that I will certainly come back for more of Mr. Massie. ...more
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