Kings and Philosophers, 1689-1789

The Norton History of Modern Europe #3

by Leonard Krieger

The one hundred years that preceded the French Revolution witnessed the rise of kings to unmatched power and influence in European affairs. These years also encompassed the birth, maturation, and waning of the Enlightenment. Leonard Krieger shows how the monarchical tradition and the new intellectual developments were reflected in the latter half of the period during the rule of "philosopher kings," the enlightened absolutists. He analyses, too, the origins of a movement toward representative government and the stirrings of political and social revolt that would bring the period to an abrupt end.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Politics, Philosophy

386 pages, Paperback

First published November 17, 1970

Reviews

[Robert Kleinberg · Rating 2 out of 5]

Most of the Norton History of Modern Europe series are balanced, readable, well-illustrated surveys of their periods. Not this one.

Krieger's book is sometimes insightful. He decided to spend one third of the book on the thinkers of the Enlightenment, highlighting developments in intellectual history and their subsequent influence on rulers and ruled.

Unfortunately, this effort is marred throughout by Krieger's attempts to fit ideas and events into a higher academic framework. Many sections are long-winded and dull, culminating in tangles like this:

"Government was relevant to the social classes because it required their support and because the policies it adopted affected their destinies, but government was also independent of its social base because of the specifically political dimension - external and internal security - in its policies."

The section on intellectual history is equally disappointing. Krieger tends to catalog and list, sort and organize, rather than to elaborate and explain the doctrines of the many thinkers he mentions. He does not define terms used, such as empiricism and utilitarianism, or distinctions such as empiricism versus "primacy of facts". His discussion of Rousseau is misleading, tending to portray him as a democrat while skimming over other implications of his "general will" concept.

Even when he gets to revolution, Krieger continues to categorize rather than to enlighten the reader on the dynamics that drove change.

The insights provided do not justify the effort needed to slog through this tedious book. Even the illustrations are below Norton's usual standard.

For a better alternative, Isser Woloch's Norton book is also not the best choice because it overfocuses on social history at the expense of politics and other developments.

A much more balanced and very readable, comprehensive survey of exactly the same period covered by Krieger is M. S. Anderson's "Europe in the Eighteenth Century".

[Vicky P · Rating 3 out of 5]

Listen my guy Leonard, first of all, please learn to write. I'm sorry, no, but smushing a dozen clauses of varying lengths together with questionable punctuation is not..... awesome. Second of all, you wanna like, treat your monarchs fairly regardless of gender? Since you're already using such subjective, colorful language in the first place. Like I know you wrote this decades ago at this point and you yourself may be dead, I am not sure. But my point still stands.

Anyways, this book gave me lots of ideas for a seminar project for my MA in History, but like. I also had to read this horrendous prose and really terrible and weird approximation of history. Thanks, but no thanks. Three stars is being generous, because I feel bad I'm tearing apart an oldish historical text by modern standards.

[Nick · Rating 1 out of 5]

the prose is about as comprehensible as the voynich manuscript

[Ben · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dense and dry.

[Tinquerbelle]

Gilbert, Felix; et al.
The Norton History of Modern Europe

In compilation only.