Europe, 1859: In the Ebb and Flow of Modernity

Arthur Haberman

Published by De Gruyter Oldenbourg 2023

Europe, 1859

In the Ebb and Flow of Modernity

Arthur Haberman

https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110793086

Overview
Contents

About this book

In 1859, Charles Baudelaire is writing the poetry and criticism of the new urban cultural and social world which would make him described by a number of historians as the first modern. Indeed, it is he who coined the term ‘modernity’. In the east, Ivan Turgenev with On the Eve begins reflections about Russia and modernity which would result in his next novel, set in 1859, Fathers and Sons. The latter still resonates today. In Switzerland, Jacob Burckhardt is inventing the Renaissance as a means of understanding what is happening in his own time. Indeed, we never talked about a Renaissance until Burckhardt published his The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy in 1860, something he wrote in order to better understand his own times. In the West, several important and central works of European culture are being written in England by both British writers and exiles. Marx is researching Das Capital and writing A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy. Mazzini is writing his major work on modern nationalism, The Duties of Man, just as Italy is beginning its decade of unification and the European map is beginning a period of extraordinary change. John Stuart Mill published his On Liberty in early 1859, still the work that is the modern ground of democratic ideas dealing with the relationship between liberty and authority. And in November 1859 one of the dozen or so most influential works of all of European history and science, one that shattered many pre-modern concepts, The Origin of Species, was published by Charles Darwin.

The thinkers who were prominent at the time were, in a full sense, public intellectuals. Their works were read, debated, applauded, feared, defended and scorned in the public forums, what philosophers sometimes called the marketplace.

It was in 1859 that modernity, the world as we now know it, gets confronted and encountered. As a result concepts and ideas we still use, then new, get thought about and become part of the public discourse. From this point on, the dialogue is forever transformed.

Author / Editor information

Arthur Haberman, York University, Toronto.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	I
Acknowledgements Publicly Available Download PDF	IX
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	XI
List of illustrations Publicly Available Download PDF	XIII
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Prologue – On Being Modern Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	4
Chapter I Baudelaire and Manet: The Experience of Modernity Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	8
Chapter II Giuseppe Mazzini: Prophet of Nationalism Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	41
Chapter III Ivan Turgenev: Russia on the Eve Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	58
Chapter IV Jacob Burckhardt: Inventing the Renaissance Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	78
Chapter V John Stuart Mill: Liberty and Modernity Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	93
Chapter VI The New City: Manchester, Paris, and Barcelona Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	112
Chapter VII Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels: Understanding Industrial Society Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	143
Chapter VIII The Anti-Moderns Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	169
Chapter IX Charles Darwin: The Mystery of Mysteries Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	187
Epilogue – Reflections Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	209
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	221

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: De Gruyter Oldenbourg
Audience: Students and scholars of european history and cultural studies
Pages
- Front matter: 8
- Main content: 224
Illustrations
- Illustrations: 5
- Coloured Illustrations: 11
Keywords: European intellectual history; Modernity; Nineteenth Century Europe

eBook

Published: December 5, 2022
ISBN: 9783110793086

Hardcover

Published: December 5, 2022
ISBN: 9783110792843

Paperback

Planned Publication: June 17, 2024
ISBN: 9783111536736