Blanning’s other theme is the contrast between the world of intellectual rationalism and the world of sentiment, both of them equally characteristic of a period which only the more selective scholars could call the ‘age of reason’. Yet in his hands there is much more to this than the traditional pitting of Descartes against Rousseau, or Hume against Kant. Blan- ning skilfully illustrates his arguments with sections on witchcraft, gardening, costume, eating, language, popular reading, and many other revealing byways. On top of all this, he manages to supply a coherent and readable account of the complex political and military history of the period, which is the part that fashionable modern text-books tend to leave out.
I have only two reservations about this thoroughly admirable book, and neither amounts to much more than minor carping. First, I wish that Blanning would not keep quoting other historians, often for the most unremarkable statements, a habit which makes him sound at times like the compère of a variety show. The place for acknowledgments is in the bibliography. Secondly, although he has read widely in many languages, his bibliography assumes that his readers are resolutely monoglot. It leaves out many of the works quoted in his text, and contains only two books in a foreign language. At least they reveal the range of his learning. One of them is about hunting, the other about buggery.
Comments
There are currently no comments for this article.