Autobiography at the Opening of the Revolutionary Age, Vol. 9: 1750 1790 (Classic Reprint)

Overview

Excerpt from Autobiography at the Opening of the Revolutionary Age, Vol. 9: 1750 1790

With this volume we enter on the Age of Revolution. America and France become the centers of our vision, flaming torches of liberty, but of a liberty only to be gained through bloodshed and tempestuous upheaval, the massacre of kings and lords in Europe and of the "embattled farmers" of America. The war of the American Revolution lasted from 1775 to 1783; the French Revolution began in 1789 and culminated with the execution of King Louis XVI in 1793.

Before we examine the writers whose narratives deal with these world-changing revolts, let us note the last important autobiography which speaks solely of the preceding period. This is Goethe's Poetry and Truth, a famous work by a very famous man. At first glance it would seem strange that Goethe, usually recognized as the greatest thinker of the German race, lived through the whole of this tremendous period, but was never carried away by the enthusiasm which Democracy's uplifted call aroused in the breasts of so many less intellectual men. Democracy seemed to many Germans, even then, to be what their leaders have so often declared it since, an impractical and even unattractive dream. Goethe, for example, raged against officialdom, the bureaucracy of his time, but saw no escape from it in Democracy.

Long after the tumult of revolt had all died down, this mighty poet and philosopher looked back over his long life and began to write its story. He started with his earliest youth, carried his tale down only to the year 1775, and there abandoned it. It is the story of a dreamer looking gently back upon the happiness of youth. It is told with a keen and beautiful appreciation of all that was best worth while in himself and in the social organism of his country.

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