5 Revolutions That Shaped Modern Europe
Notes from Blanning's Pursuit of Glory
On finishing epic histories
Six or seven years ago, I started Tim Blanning’s Pursuit of Glory, which is an entertaining history of Europe between 1648 (the Peace of Westphalia) and 1815 (the end of the Napoleonic Wars).
Having read it on and off, in non-sequential fashion, and at different times over the last half decade, I picked it up this past week and finished the remaining 100 or so pages this morning.
Finishing epic histories, even with many years in between the start and the finish, is always accompanied with the reader’s version of runner’s high. You’ve been on a marathon with the author, and together, you’ve arrived at the finish line of a race that required years of the author’s life.
To highlight this a bit more, when you read an epic history, you’ve read a piece of work that has most likely taken the author a minimum of 5 years to write, not to mention the additional decade at least of scholarship that has informed the author’s subject matter expertise.
An epic history, in terms of time, effort, and risk, is to the historian as the startup is to the entrepreneur. Whenever I finish a great history, I always consider the historian’s thousands of hours invested, the roadblocks, the moments of doubt, the breakthroughs, the critique and the encouragement from editors, and then finally, the reception and reaction from common readers. Did the work sell?
The 5 revolutions
So what were Blanning’s revolutions?
In 1648, the Peace of Westphalia formally ended the 30 Years War.
Over the next 150 years, modern Europe transforms from a medieval society to global powerhouse. France rises and falls twice as the continental super power. Spain, the Netherlands, the Holy Roman Empire, and the Hapsburg empire are all diminished. Meanwhile Prussia (modern Germany) emerges as a great power, and Russia & Great Britain as superpowers. In 1815, the post Waterloo Congress of Vienna ushers in a balance of power that forms (mostly) the map of Europe as we would recognize it today.
The geopolitical labyrinth during this period sees 5 Revolutions either happen, or commence: Scientific, Industrial, American, French, and Romantic. As a result, are 5 transformations of modern society :
the emergence of the modern state
the emergence of nationalism
the emergence of the public sphere
the emergence of public opinion
the expansion of Europe
Blanning details these forces, and the ways in which they impact day to day life in households, shops, farms, battlefields, and royal courts, with accessibility and pace, and the book achieves as one critic wrote, “history writing at its glorious best.”
The past as a conflict between progress and problems
Histories of modern Europe are instructive for understanding the journey to democratic capitalism.
The period covered in this book can be regarded as 150 years of significant human progress, or as 150 years of incessant misery, depending on the reader’s taste.
For the optimistic reader, there is substantial evidence to point to:
scientific progress, in many forms (e.g. the discrediting of the belief that the earth was at the center of the universe)
expansionary progress, in many forms (e.g. population, literacy, ease of communication, economic activity)
the breaking of the feudal world and the emergence of classes, capitalism, and democracy (e.g. American & Industrial Revolutions)
For the pessimistic reader, there is also substantial evidence to conclude that the period was overwhelmingly miserable:
the shallow quality of much of the above progress for the common European peasant, who by 1815, remained largely illiterate & highly superstitious
the enormous number of war-time deaths, enslaved peoples, persecuted minorities, and maternal deaths
the on the ground reality that states by 1815 had become more intrusive, more demanding and more despotic, with bigger armies and larger conscriptions
Blanning tries to show throughout the book that neither of these narratives in isolation is valid.
The period, like all periods before and since, is a conflict of progress and problems.