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

Contemporary Europe is divided between progressive cosmopolitans and counter-enlightened conservative nationalists. This study explores the roots of historically informed ideas of Europe, highlighting the differences between older counter-revolutionary Europeanists and their successors in the twenty-first century. Counter-revolutionary authors defended European civilization against nationalist revolutionaries in the 1800s, proclaiming the concept of a gradually developing European society and political order founded on historical and divine institutions. These ideas were rediscovered and adapted to new political contexts throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, shaping our contested idea of European history and memory.

Format: Hardback
Length: 384 pages
Publication date: 23 March 2023
Publisher: Oxford University Press

Contemporary Europe finds itself caught between two opposing forces: progressive cosmopolitans who advocate for the European Union and the ideals of the Enlightenment, and counter-enlightened conservative nationalists who champion the virtues of homelands under threat from globalized elites and mass migration. This study aims to delve into the origins of historically informed ideas about Europe, while simultaneously highlighting the fundamental distinctions between the writings of older counter-revolutionary Europeanists and their self-proclaimed successors and detractors in the twenty-first century.

In the decades surrounding the French Revolution in the 1800s, counter-revolutionary authors from across Europe rallied to defend European civilization against the onslaught of nationalist revolutionaries. These counter-revolutionaries believed that the nationalist revolutionaries were seeking to destroy the existing order. In contrast 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. They argued that this order was 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 upon the cosmopolitan Enlightenment and simultaneously critiqued its alleged revolutionary legacy. Throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, these ideas of European history and civilization were rediscovered and adapted to new political contexts, shaping in manifold ways our contested idea of European history and memory until today.

Weight: 726g
Dimension: 240 x 166 x 28 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780198872139