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Hitting a Home Run in the Book Department

Bertrand Russell, in his eighties, was killing time in an airport, reading a novel that pleased him. He told somebody, "I've dedicated the first 80 years of my life to philosophy. The next eighty go to fiction." He lived to 98. With that inspiration, it is certainly worth tooting my horn over a rare success in the book department, especially because it resulted from deliberate flexibility.

A reader's life has not been wasted if they end up with a good understanding of the Great War and the French Revolution. Although I've yet to find a book on the Great War that really blew me away, I have bumbled onto a great book on the French Revolution. Once, when reading a Tolstoy novel, one of his characters was said to be reading Taine, a popular French writer of that era. I had never heard of him, nor have many modern readers, I suppose. What a shame.

Actually he wrote a series of seven books about the ancien regime, the Revolution proper, and then the Napoleonic sequel.  His perspective is very anti-Jacobin, therefore the book might be hard to like for many "leftists" of today. (And when did 'left' and 'right' become political labels?) That is too bad, because there is much in his books that transcends the left/right split that can get tiresome and predictable.

Taine is at his best when he is attacking the prevailing mindset of intellectuals and dilettantes of the late 1700s, most of whom were slaves of Jean Jacques Rousseau. I am reluctant to regurgitate his conclusions. It is too much like giving away spoilers in a movie review. 

A better analogy: I dislike giving out GPS coordinates of dispersed camping sites. I would rather encourage people to check out a certain general area, and let them discover things for themselves. That is where the excitement is.

For what it is worth, these are the most important history books that I have ever read.

Comments

Anonymous said…
As you have obviously discovered, the facts of the French Revolution and Napoleon are far different from what we were taught in English speaking schools.
Personally I wasn't taught too much about the French Revolution in schools. The school system in America didn't care too much about the rest of the world back then. Maybe it still doesn't.
Ed said…
In 2014, 18 percent of eighth-graders performed at or above the Proficient level in U.S. history, 27 percent performed at or above the Proficient level in geography, and 23 percent performed at or above the Proficient level in civics.

These are numbers for US History and US Geography at the eighth-grade level. It does not get any better with high school graduates and is better at the college level only for those individuals that major in history, geography or political science. World history and world geography knowledge is far worse - Americans are virtually illiterate in both subjects.
Alfred said…
Actually, the use of 'right' and 'left' as political labels began during the French Revolution. In the National Assembly supporters of the king sat to the president's right, supporters of the revolution to his left, and somehow the terms (if not the seating arrangements) have endured.
Yes indeed, left and right started during the French Revolution. Why then do we use these terms in America, where there was never a king, an established clergy, or landed nobles running a feudal system? (African slavery was the exception of course.)

At any rate, it is ironic that 'left' and 'right' would be used daily in modern America, and yet the average American knows little and cares less about the French Revolution.
Americans ARE almost completely ignorant of the rest of the world. But they just can't wait for the next excuse to bomb the crap out of another country whose existence they were unaware of.
John V said…
The "most important" or more likely the most interesting history books you've ever read? While the French Revolution is interesting reading and did impact the early development of the US, as a US citizen wanting to live and thrive within these borders there are certainly more "important" history books out there for you to read. They just may not be as much fun as reading about the French Revolution.
(No internet for a couple days.)

We read history to get the Big Picture, and that won't come from being a provincial and reading about your own country. Intellectually American history has very little to offer since it is just an offshoot of European civilization.

Most of the political trends since 1968 have just been slow motion Jabobinism. It helps to understand them to see them as quite old, dating back to 1792-1794.
Little Toot 2 said…
That is the truth. Americans really do think the world revolves around them. Our superiority is absolutely obnoxious. Most of us have no understanding of the world around us and worse yet, most have no interested in learning. But like you say, we're more than happy to stick our noses in other peoples business and then blame them when they don't see things our way.
Little Toot 2, Crimea and Ukraine are almost limiting cases of this. And yet, the usual suspects have almost got Americans into getting militarily involved there.