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Studies in Reaction
The Present Time
In The Present Time, Carlyle takes aim at modernity. This essay was, even in its time, seen as so blistering that the Southern Literary Messenger described its contents as "purely monstrous, and the most elaborate argument would not place their monstrosity more clearly before the reader, than the simple enunciation of them." We present it here with another of Carlyle's essays.
Carlyle influenced not only fascism but socialism, and in The Modern Worker he grants the worker his essential nobility and savagely critiques laissez-faire economics. He folds his anti-capitalism into the critique of modernity given in The Present Time
As Carlyle is known for coinages and obscure references, this volume offers a comprehensive glossary of terms. For many readers, this will be the first time they have fully grasped this titanic intellect.
Carlyle influenced not only fascism but socialism, and in The Modern Worker he grants the worker his essential nobility and savagely critiques laissez-faire economics. He folds his anti-capitalism into the critique of modernity given in The Present Time
As Carlyle is known for coinages and obscure references, this volume offers a comprehensive glossary of terms. For many readers, this will be the first time they have fully grasped this titanic intellect.
153 pages, Kindle Edition
First published February 1, 1850
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About the author
Thomas Carlyle
1,736 books527 followersThomas Carlyle, Scottish historian, critic, and sociological writer. was born in the village of Ecclefechan, Dumfriesshire, eldest child of James Carlyle, stonemason, and Margaret (Aitken) Carlyle. The father was stern, irascible, a puritan of the puritans, but withal a man of rigid probity and strength of character. The mother, too, was of the Scottish earth, and Thomas' education was begun at home by both the parents. From the age of five to nine he was at the village school; from nine to fourteen at Annan Grammar School. where he showed proficiency in mathematics and was well grounded in French and Latin. In November 1809 he walked to Edinburgh, and attended courses at the University till 1814, with the ultimate aim of becoming a minister. He left without a degree, became a mathematical tutor at Annan Academy in 1814, and three years later abandoned all thoughts of entering the Kirk, having reached a theological position incompatible with its teachings. He had begun to learn German in Edinburgh, and had done much independent reading outside the regular curriculum. Late in 1816 he moved to a school in Kirkcaldy, where he became the intimate associate of Edward Irving, an old boy of Annan School, and now also a schoolmaster. This contact was Carlyle's first experience of true intellectual companionship, and the two men became lifelong friends. He remained there two years, was attracted by Margaret Gordon, a lady of good family (whose friends vetoed an engagement), and in October 1818 gave up schoolmastering and went to Edinburgh, where he took mathematical pupils and made some show of reading law.
During this period in the Scottish capital he began to suffer agonies from a gastric complaint which continued to torment him all his life, and may well have played a large part in shaping the rugged, rude fabric of his philosophy. In literature he had at first little success, a series of articles for the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia bringing in little money and no special credit. In 1820 and 1821 he visited Irving in Glasgow and made long stays at his father's new farm, Mainhill; and in June 1821, in Leith Walk, Edinburgh, he experienced a striking spiritual rebirth which is related in Sartor Resartus. Put briefly and prosaically, it consisted in a sudden clearing away of doubts as to the beneficent organization of the universe; a semi-mystical conviction that he was free to think and work, and that honest effort and striving would not be thwarted by what he called the "Everlasting No."
For about a year, from the spring of 1823, Carlyle was tutor to Charles and Arthur Buller, young men of substance, first in Edinburgh and later at Dunkeld. Now likewise appeared the first fruits of his deep studies in German, the Life of Schiller, which was published serially in the London Magazine in 1823-24 and issued as a separate volume in 1825. A second garner from the same field was his version of Goethe's Wilhelm Meister which earned the praise of Blackwood's and was at once recognized as a very masterly rendering.
In 1821 Irving had gone to London, and in June 1821 Carlyle followed, in the train of his employers, the Bullers. But he soon resigned his tutorship, and, after a few weeks at Birmingham, trying a dyspepsia cure, he lived with Irving at Pentonville, London, and paid a short visit to Paris. March 1825 saw him back; in Scotland, on his brother's farm, Hoddam Hill, near the Solway. Here for a year he worked hard at German translations, perhaps more serenely than before or after and free from that noise which was always a curse to his sensitive ear and which later caused him to build a sound-proof room in his Chelsea home.
Before leaving for London Irving had introduced Carlyle to Jane Baillie Welsh daughter of the surgeon, John Welsh, and descended from John Knox. She was beautiful, precociously learned, talented, and a brilliant mistress of cynical satire. Among her numerous suitors, the rough, uncouth
During this period in the Scottish capital he began to suffer agonies from a gastric complaint which continued to torment him all his life, and may well have played a large part in shaping the rugged, rude fabric of his philosophy. In literature he had at first little success, a series of articles for the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia bringing in little money and no special credit. In 1820 and 1821 he visited Irving in Glasgow and made long stays at his father's new farm, Mainhill; and in June 1821, in Leith Walk, Edinburgh, he experienced a striking spiritual rebirth which is related in Sartor Resartus. Put briefly and prosaically, it consisted in a sudden clearing away of doubts as to the beneficent organization of the universe; a semi-mystical conviction that he was free to think and work, and that honest effort and striving would not be thwarted by what he called the "Everlasting No."
For about a year, from the spring of 1823, Carlyle was tutor to Charles and Arthur Buller, young men of substance, first in Edinburgh and later at Dunkeld. Now likewise appeared the first fruits of his deep studies in German, the Life of Schiller, which was published serially in the London Magazine in 1823-24 and issued as a separate volume in 1825. A second garner from the same field was his version of Goethe's Wilhelm Meister which earned the praise of Blackwood's and was at once recognized as a very masterly rendering.
In 1821 Irving had gone to London, and in June 1821 Carlyle followed, in the train of his employers, the Bullers. But he soon resigned his tutorship, and, after a few weeks at Birmingham, trying a dyspepsia cure, he lived with Irving at Pentonville, London, and paid a short visit to Paris. March 1825 saw him back; in Scotland, on his brother's farm, Hoddam Hill, near the Solway. Here for a year he worked hard at German translations, perhaps more serenely than before or after and free from that noise which was always a curse to his sensitive ear and which later caused him to build a sound-proof room in his Chelsea home.
Before leaving for London Irving had introduced Carlyle to Jane Baillie Welsh daughter of the surgeon, John Welsh, and descended from John Knox. She was beautiful, precociously learned, talented, and a brilliant mistress of cynical satire. Among her numerous suitors, the rough, uncouth
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
June 8, 2021
Certainly, many inaugural readers of Carlyle will quickly realize that they don't know English (the language or the People) as well as they supposed. The stirring polemics contained in this edition, first in The Present Time and next in The Modern Worker defy the systemized approach that many other writers take. Take this as a warning before attempting to categorize Carlyle's points before properly parsing out the humor and hyperbole. It is worth reading a first time to appreciate his style and the context in which he is writing, and then a second to extrapolate his more prescient and evergreen points. Be sure to digest his thoughts on heroes, eternity, and the spirit of man, and then question what the teleology of your own beliefs/political anchors really are.
A massive boon to the effort is the glossary in the back of this Imperium Press edition. Much praise for this print is warranted. It was much more pleasant to read this petite copy than squinting at the scanned pages on Google Books.
A massive boon to the effort is the glossary in the back of this Imperium Press edition. Much praise for this print is warranted. It was much more pleasant to read this petite copy than squinting at the scanned pages on Google Books.
November 4, 2021
Yet another excellent book in The Reaction Studies being put out by Imperium Press. I have to say above all I love Carlyles writing style. He's funny, he's sarcastic but he also very intelligent and to the point. His critiques of democracy and liberalism as a whole are unmatched in there accuracy.
I am glad I decided to grab this book, I was hesitant for a while because (and this may seem petty) I heard Curtis Yarvin talking Carlyle up on an interview and because if my views on Yarvin I assumed Carlyle wouldn't be worth a study. But as it figures I sure am glad I didn't let Moldbug ruin him for me. Carlyle is a great resource for fully understanding the earliest and most deadly critiques of Classical and by extension modern and neo liberalism. All Third Positionists should read. You won't be disappointed.
I am glad I decided to grab this book, I was hesitant for a while because (and this may seem petty) I heard Curtis Yarvin talking Carlyle up on an interview and because if my views on Yarvin I assumed Carlyle wouldn't be worth a study. But as it figures I sure am glad I didn't let Moldbug ruin him for me. Carlyle is a great resource for fully understanding the earliest and most deadly critiques of Classical and by extension modern and neo liberalism. All Third Positionists should read. You won't be disappointed.
July 30, 2023
Thomas Carlyle is a Victorian essayist. Know that before picking this book up... if you have found Victorian literature unnecessarily word, then know that political writings of this era push into the most distant and rarely visited boundaries of verbosity. And of these Victorian writers, Carlyle seems to have felt like he needs to go further and deeper than his contemporaries.
That is to say that for every idea Carlyle has to express, he has to express it obliquely, repeatedly, and with as many adjectives and semicolons as he could write without cramping. Really, it felt like he found his own ideas so compelling but ineffable, that he had to write them out in three different ways in the hope that the reader would be able to triangulate exactly what he wanted to say somewhere in between his myriad of adjectives and exclamation points.
Complaints about the writing style of his era aside (and this book is a slog on that account, rest assured), some of his ideas are excellent - and he had an excellent eye for decay.
The decay of the aristocracy, the decay of the citizen, the decay of the worker, of religion, of work itself, and, at last, of the people. He is merciless in his condemnation of the emergent capitalism of his time, which amounted to little more than Mammonism in his eyes. Neither the new class of industrial titans trying to buy a semblance of aristocracy nor the zombified and useless true English aristocracy escapes his complaints. These complaints occur primarily in the second part of this edition (which is the majority of the book), called "The Modern Worker."
The first part, "The Present Time," lends its name to the book but is shorter and, frankly, of less consequence. Here a litany of Scottish protestant bellyaching couched in ornate language of which the only truly interesting observation is that a disastrous and modernizing papacy played a major role in the lighting of the conflagration that would become the "printemps des peuples." Indeed, this pamphlet was printed in 1850, so not two years after the events of 1848.
Carlyle has some relatively rare takes, ranging from truly interesting (like his praise of the Chinese Emperor in a number of regards at the end of his "The Modern Worker" tract) to somewhat strange (he loves William the Conqueror) to downright pathetic (a swansong to Oliver Cromwell's rule). Cromwell may have been one of the Great Men or "Heroes" in the sense Carlyle uses, but such men need to be judged not only by their willingness to act and act intelligently but also by the long-term effects of their rule. Carlyle sings the praises of such men and correctly identifies them as one of the true drivers of history (here Tolstoy is simply wrong)... however, he would do well to notice how their actions laid the foundation of what he complains about throughout the entire book. Hindsight has become somewhat clearer since 1850, however.
I hesitate to recommend the book as I feel like most of these ideas can be found elsewhere and often better expressed... Nevertheless, it is impressive that he so clearly recognizes the inevitable conclusion of laissez-faire capitalism as well as the conjoined natures of atheism and democracy.
As to the edition: The print is quite small and the lines scrunched together, basically the opposite of what you want when reading Victorian literature.
That is to say that for every idea Carlyle has to express, he has to express it obliquely, repeatedly, and with as many adjectives and semicolons as he could write without cramping. Really, it felt like he found his own ideas so compelling but ineffable, that he had to write them out in three different ways in the hope that the reader would be able to triangulate exactly what he wanted to say somewhere in between his myriad of adjectives and exclamation points.
Complaints about the writing style of his era aside (and this book is a slog on that account, rest assured), some of his ideas are excellent - and he had an excellent eye for decay.
The decay of the aristocracy, the decay of the citizen, the decay of the worker, of religion, of work itself, and, at last, of the people. He is merciless in his condemnation of the emergent capitalism of his time, which amounted to little more than Mammonism in his eyes. Neither the new class of industrial titans trying to buy a semblance of aristocracy nor the zombified and useless true English aristocracy escapes his complaints. These complaints occur primarily in the second part of this edition (which is the majority of the book), called "The Modern Worker."
The first part, "The Present Time," lends its name to the book but is shorter and, frankly, of less consequence. Here a litany of Scottish protestant bellyaching couched in ornate language of which the only truly interesting observation is that a disastrous and modernizing papacy played a major role in the lighting of the conflagration that would become the "printemps des peuples." Indeed, this pamphlet was printed in 1850, so not two years after the events of 1848.
Carlyle has some relatively rare takes, ranging from truly interesting (like his praise of the Chinese Emperor in a number of regards at the end of his "The Modern Worker" tract) to somewhat strange (he loves William the Conqueror) to downright pathetic (a swansong to Oliver Cromwell's rule). Cromwell may have been one of the Great Men or "Heroes" in the sense Carlyle uses, but such men need to be judged not only by their willingness to act and act intelligently but also by the long-term effects of their rule. Carlyle sings the praises of such men and correctly identifies them as one of the true drivers of history (here Tolstoy is simply wrong)... however, he would do well to notice how their actions laid the foundation of what he complains about throughout the entire book. Hindsight has become somewhat clearer since 1850, however.
I hesitate to recommend the book as I feel like most of these ideas can be found elsewhere and often better expressed... Nevertheless, it is impressive that he so clearly recognizes the inevitable conclusion of laissez-faire capitalism as well as the conjoined natures of atheism and democracy.
As to the edition: The print is quite small and the lines scrunched together, basically the opposite of what you want when reading Victorian literature.
June 7, 2023
Carlyle was one of the greatest writers of the 19th century. In this short book, he takes apart the ideals of liberty and democracy with his biting rhetoric and incisive argumentation.
August 19, 2023
As another reviewer noted, reading Carlyle makes one realize that they don't really properly speak English..
Even though this is a short book containing a collection of several short essays, it actually took me quite a while to go through as I often needed many rereads of sentences, passages and pages(though maybe that is just me being an ESL). Still, the language I encountered here was nothing like what I've read from other anglo authors(be it Bong or Yankee) and even more so, I'd go as far as saying that I'll probably need a complete reread of the whole thing sometime in the future to actually assimilate, understand and appreciate Carlyle.(No, I definitely am going to reread this even for its pure aesthetic value but I'll need to reread it to actually understand the man.)
Anyways, IP's edition here contains 3 short works by Carlyle - The Modern Worker, Shooting Niagara, and, obviously, The Present Time. Each one completely different in style and theme from the others, so far as to have almost nothing in common with one another and yet all of them having that signature Carlylean tone and 'vibe'(for a lack of a better term).
All of the works deal with different problems.. or rather aspects of the problem of Mammonism, or Nihilism, which seems to be the dominating theology of the liberal (dis)order from its very inception. Carlyle goes through its historical, sociological, philosophical, political and aesthetic meaning and its manifestations in different phenomena within society, through workers, labor unions, trade, statecraft, democracy, slavery and so much more..
All that I could say about this book is that it's genuinely beautiful and I would very, very heavily encourage anyone who finds themselves disillusioned and dissociated with the current state of affairs in the West to give this little thing a read.
Even though this is a short book containing a collection of several short essays, it actually took me quite a while to go through as I often needed many rereads of sentences, passages and pages(though maybe that is just me being an ESL). Still, the language I encountered here was nothing like what I've read from other anglo authors(be it Bong or Yankee) and even more so, I'd go as far as saying that I'll probably need a complete reread of the whole thing sometime in the future to actually assimilate, understand and appreciate Carlyle.(No, I definitely am going to reread this even for its pure aesthetic value but I'll need to reread it to actually understand the man.)
Anyways, IP's edition here contains 3 short works by Carlyle - The Modern Worker, Shooting Niagara, and, obviously, The Present Time. Each one completely different in style and theme from the others, so far as to have almost nothing in common with one another and yet all of them having that signature Carlylean tone and 'vibe'(for a lack of a better term).
All of the works deal with different problems.. or rather aspects of the problem of Mammonism, or Nihilism, which seems to be the dominating theology of the liberal (dis)order from its very inception. Carlyle goes through its historical, sociological, philosophical, political and aesthetic meaning and its manifestations in different phenomena within society, through workers, labor unions, trade, statecraft, democracy, slavery and so much more..
All that I could say about this book is that it's genuinely beautiful and I would very, very heavily encourage anyone who finds themselves disillusioned and dissociated with the current state of affairs in the West to give this little thing a read.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews