Age of Revolution
The Age of Revolution refers to a period of significant social, political, and economic upheaval that occurred in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. It encompasses events such as the American Revolution, the French Revolution, and the Industrial Revolution, which brought about major changes in governance, society, and industry. This era marked a shift towards modernity and the rise of new ideologies and technologies.
5 Key excerpts on "Age of Revolution"
- Paola Signoretta, Kate McMahon Moughtin, J.C. Moughtin(Authors)
- 2009(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...The Age of Protest 6 DOI: 10.4324/9780080885377-9 Introduction The awakening to the effects of global warming and to the negative dimensions of globalization, throughout the last decades of the millennium, has parallels in the period spanning the 1760s to the 1830s, when North America, France, Germany and Britain focused their awareness on the injustices underpinning their respective social, economic and political systems. It was an age of exploitation. It was an age of protest. By re-examining the syndrome of discontent and protest of that period, we may better understand the fault-lines in our current approaches, so as to be more inclusive and holistic in planning an environment which fosters well-being. This was a period of revolution: the literary output of the time has been called the ‘Romantic Revolution’. The term ‘Romantic’, however, raises many questions about the precise demarcation, particularly for architects, between it and its antithesis, ‘Classical’. The often arbitrary nature of the distinction between these two approaches in design, painting and poetry often result in terms of abuse or, at best, a list of opposite traits: for example, Classical being associated with objective, rational, orderly, thoughtful; Romantic being associated with subjective, irrational, chaotic, emotional. Depending upon preference, poets or artists can be placed in either team. To avoid the subjectivity associated with using the term ‘Romantic’ and to emphasize the ‘down-to-earth’ and revolutionary nature of this movement, the period will be referred to as ‘the age of protest’; the poets, the intellectual leaders of this movement, will be referred to as ‘the poets of protest’...
- Bernard Bailyn(Author)
- 2012(Publication Date)
- Belknap Press(Publisher)
...Chapter I THE LITERATURE OF REVOLUTION What do we mean by the Revolution? The war? That was no part of the Revolution; it was only an effect and consequence of it. The Revolution was in the minds of the people, and this was effected, from 1760 to 1775, in the course of fifteen years before a drop of blood was shed at Lexington. The records of thirteen legislatures, the pamphlets, newspapers in all the colonies, ought to be consulted during that period to ascertain the steps by which the public opinion was enlightened and informed concerning the authority of Parliament over the colonies. —John Adams to Jefferson, 1815 Whatever deficiencies the leaders of the American Revolution may have had, reticence, fortunately, was not one of them. They wrote easily and amply, and turned out in the space of scarcely a decade and a half and from a small number of presses a rich literature of theory, argument, opinion, and polemic. Every medium of written expression was put to use. The newspapers, of which by 1775 there were thirty-eight in the mainland colonies, were crowded with columns of arguments and counter-arguments appearing as letters, official documents, extracts of speeches, and sermons. Broadsides—single sheets on which were often printed not only large-letter notices but, in three or four columns of minuscule type, essays of several thousand words—appeared everywhere; they could be found posted or passing from hand to hand in the towns of every colony...
...1 An Age of Revolutions Byron belongs not merely to English but to world literature. His poetry made him famous at the age of twenty-four; his fame quickly spread throughout Europe as far as Russia and to America; and where-ever it spread it brought him ardent disciples. He was sufficiently representative of his society to attract a multitude of readers, and he was sufficiently critical of it to win the allegiance of many of the young. All ages are ages of change. But in some the rate of change increases, or at least men’s consciousness of change grows more acute. The age of Byron was one of these. It was an Age of Revolutions. The American Revolution slightly preceded his birth in 1788, the French Revolution occurred during his early years, and the Industrial Revolution was accelerating throughout his life. As an aristocrat, Byron inherited political privileges and responsibilities in this changing world. While in England, he supported the opposition party, the Whigs, believing it to be the party of freedom and humanity. These concerns explain his lifelong sympathy with movements of national liberation and his hostility to the kings and generals whom he held responsible for unjust wars. Nor did his opposition manifest itself only in political forms. His poems projected upon the public imagination a type of hero who was the very embodiment of revolt. At the same time, Byron was in some ways highly orthodox. He rarely lost sight of his own status as an English aristocrat, and he retained to the end certain of the traits he had developed as a young Regency dandy. His literary tastes were conservative, and an old-fashioned eighteenth-century empiricism usually made him impatient of the metaphysical speculations that attracted his more Romantic contemporaries. These leanings, evident from the start in his private conversation and his letters, became dominant in the major poems of his later years...
eBook - ePub- Charlie R. Steen(Author)
- 2019(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...7 The culture of the Age of Reason, 1740–1784 Events and people The decades of the height of the Enlightenment produced individuals in cultural life who associated themselves with having reason as a guide for all human endeavors. The intellectual and cultural burst of activity affected Europe and the American colonies but proved incapable of transforming the social and political order and faced significant opposition from established churches. Consequently, people advanced ideas encouraging personal freedom and human rights in an environment of repression rooted in archaic practices and beliefs. New philosophy collided with old traditions. The brilliance of the art and music and the vitality of theatrical performances captivated audiences just as the literature of fact and fiction did. Powerful poetry, engaging novels, and a vast range of personal records of life and travel revealed a vigorous civilization. Sadly, the beauty and enthusiasm of the culture contrasted with dynastic politics that indulged in repressive measures and increasingly frightful and costly wars. Those contradictions made the period uneasy and uncertain for many of its most creative citizens. Johann Winckelmann (1717–1768). As a student in Germany he studied both science and the art of the classical world. After moving to Rome, Winkelmann became instrumental in developing archaeology as a scientific investigation of the past while also advancing the aesthetic appreciation of antiquity that became important after 1750. He wrote on the art and architecture of Greece and Rome, and openly advocated imitating their principles and techniques. He strengthened the existing place of classicism in creative life with his History of the Art of Antiquity that summarized the attitudes of neoclassicism with its insistence on simplicity in form and avoidance of ornamentation...
eBook - ePubWestern Civilization: A Global and Comparative Approach
Volume II: Since 1600
- Kenneth L. Campbell(Author)
- 2015(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...The age also valued originality; in England Daniel Defoe (1660–1731), author of Robinson Crusoe (1719–1720) and Moll Flanders (1722), and Samuel Richardson created entirely new plots and story lines that did not relate to any previous literary works. Seventeenth-century authors such as Pierre Corneille, John Milton, and even Shakespeare had drawn their plots from established story lines from history, the Bible, mythology, or previous literary works. Moll Flanders, for example, is the story of a woman who turns to prostitution and theft for survival in the increasingly competitive and hard-hearted world of the eighteenth century. However, Moll, through a combination of self-improvement and fortuitous circumstances that seem the result of divine intervention—including a period of imprisonment that brings her to her lowest point of despair—ends her life as a decent, moral, reformed, and prosperous woman. The story thus coincides with the Enlightenment belief that human nature is shaped by society and the environment but is essentially good, as well as affirming the belief in the possibility of reforming the individual. It also represents a secular tale of morality, as literature began to fill the void of moral instruction in an age of declining church influence. In spite of the originality of the story, Moll represents a kind of heroine that can be recognized in Christianity and other spiritual traditions: one who descends into the depths of hell before a kind of spiritual awakening, transformation, and rebirth as a new person. François Boucher’s complete works can be viewed at www.francois-boucher.org. Like literature, the art of the eighteenth century reflected different trends that related to the intellectual developments of the period. For example, the French artists who painted for the wealthy aristocracy tended toward traditional classical or biblical themes that appealed to the soft and luxurious lifestyles of the French upper classes...
