WHAT HAVE WE DONE…. “This perspective on the Revolution has particular signifi

WHAT HAVE WE DONE….

“This perspective on the Revolution has particular significance in the case of the aristocratic liberals because for them France, not England was the paradigmatic case for modern history. To most nineteenth-century European liberals, England and English history were the pattern for modern development. But to the aristocratic liberals, the pattern was france, and their understanding of the French Revolution must be seen in this light.England was the Other, placed opposite the common Continental destiny. Continually out of phase with the rest of Europe, sometimes running ahead and sometimes lagging behind.” – Aristocratic Liberalism p11.

“…all of Europe was seized with a hatred of itself, of its own time, of its own history: “Theory taught that tradition was worthless and that the oldest things were useless and rubbish.”