The 1789–1815 period

An epoch that stands as a classical age for later historians is inevitably interpreted and reinterpreted in the light of their own times, even while remaining a distinct object of study with its own internal logic. The epoch of the French Revolution and Imperium was, until the middle of the twentieth century, the classical age for historians of continental Europe since I8I5. For these historians, it was not the civil war on Corcyra or the exploits of Alcibiades, the virtues of Cicero or the achievements of Caesar, that provided paradigms. The period from I789 to 1815 appeared to them as the origin and also as the principal example of contemporary experience, of its opportunities and its dangers. The Revolutionary and Imperial epoch no longer stands in that relation to the whole of later European history. A complex process of intellectual change has dissolved the classical age into elements that now merge into the general history of longer or shorter periods. This process displayed important national differences, being variously advanced or retarded as a result of current experience in the first half of the twentieth century and variety in historiographical traditions. We begin, therefore, by considering in turn France, Germany, and Poland. But since historical study is an international activity, affected by technological and intellectual influences that readily cross linguistic and ideological boundaries, we hope in the end to discern common tendencies that have affected twentieth-century interpretations of the Revolutionary and Imperial epoch

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