The limits of the Enlightened narrative

Rethinking Europe in Napoleonic Germany

Bibliographic Data

ID11348307
AuthorsMorgan Golf-French (0009-0004-4196-5359, Department of History, University College London, London, UK, corresponding author)
Year2020
Volume46
Issue8
Pages1197-1213
Publication date2020-11-16
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueHistory of European Ideas (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0191-6599 • E-ISSN: 1873-541X
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/01916599.2020.1763746
OpenAlexW3031291016
LanguageEN
References cited20

Between 1796 and 1814, two of late Enlightenment Germany's most prominent historians offered striking revisions to earlier accounts of European history. The renowned journalist, historian, and Slavicist August Ludwig Schlözer published a critical edition and translation of the Old Slavonic Primary Chronicle alongside a detailed historical commentary. This commentary presented Russia as an important protagonist in Europe's emergence from barbarism to Enlightened modernity. By contrast, his colleague Johann Gottfried Eichhorn published several historical works arguing that France had failed to cultivate a mature bourgeoisie and, consequently, had not become a fully modern polity. Building on the work of J. G. A. Pocock and Michael Printy, this article examines the thought of Eichhorn and Schlözer as political responses to the crises of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic period. It thereby offers both a fresh assessment of the work of two major Enlightenment intellectuals and an analysis of how notions of European modernity were reconfigured in a period of profound political turmoil

Art · Literature · Narrative · Political science · European Political History Analysis · History · Political Theory and Influence · Rousseau and Enlightenment Thought

Tools

Open DOI