Question: What unique features developed in Europe that "we" now take to be the norm?
"Much of the history of the past two centuries, especially in Europe, has been a reflection of a sustained dual revolution in politics and economics."
"The revolts of 1848 were the direct though delayed result of the changes set in motion by industrialization and by he ideas of 1789."
The meaning of "liberal" and "conservative"
has changed over time since the origin of the terms during the French Revolution;
in fact, their content can reverse even today, depending on the context.
On the overlay: collect ideas from students about the meanings
of the terms.
Discuss how today's conceptions relate to the original meanings
Second phase of 1848 revolutions
"The liberals, composed overwhelmingly of urban middle-class property holders, were more afraid of some form of socialism than they were of continued aristocratic privilege and royal absolutism"
a. an officially established church with preeminent rights in education
b. an absolutist monarch ruling with no constitutional restraints
c. a proposal to sever any connections between church and schools
d. a proposal to give poor and rich alike an equal vote
(textbook p. 509)
"The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggle.
Freeman and slave, patrician and plebian, lord and serf, guildmaster and journeyman,
in a word, oppressor and oppressed, stood in constant opposition to one another,
carried on an uninterrupted, now hidden, now open fight, that each time ended
either in a revolutionary reconstitution of society at large, or in the common
ruin of the contending classes."
Nationalism
Prepared for web by H. Marcuse, 4/20/03
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