The Romantic Movement

by Maurice Cranston

The Romantic Movement in Europe was both a revolt and a revival, a philosophy of life as well as of art. In the earliest expressions of romantic theory by Rousseau and Diderot, it is seen as a revolt against rationalism. In Great Britain and Italy it appears as a revolt against classicism, in Spain as a revival of the tradition of the Moorish courts, and in Germany, where it excited the greatest enthusiasm, as both a revolt against rationalism and a revival of the Gothic and Germanic.
Despite the differences of aim and emphasis across Europe, Professor Cranston argues that romaticism was a European phenomenon, as universal as the Renaissance. He isolates its common features - liberty, introspection, and the importance of love; truth in the expression of feeling as much as of thought; nature seen as an object of devotion rather than scientific study; a tolerance of the grotesque coupled with an interest in the exotic, the primitive and the medieval; a concern for the value of intuition over ratiocination; and a preference for audacity over prudence.
The Romantic Movement is part of the common European heritage, and its influence is by no means at an end. The book is the first to describe its philosophy, history, and cultural and artistic manifestations, and the ways these varied across the countries of Europe.

Genres: History, Philosophy, Romanticism

175 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1994

About the author

Maurice William Cranston was an English philosopher, professor, and author. He served for many years as Professor of Political Science at the London School of Economics, and was also known for his popular publications. In the late 1970s and early 1980s he was Professor of Political Theory at the European University Institute in Florence (Italy).

Cranston's major works include biographies of John Locke, for which he received the 1957 James Tait Black Memorial Prize, and Rousseau, Jean-Paul Sartre, and others addressing the history of liberty. He contributed to many publications in both Britain and the United States and wrote scripts for the BBC. In 1946 two of his detective novels were published by John Westhouse: Tomorrow We'll Be Sober and Philosopher's Hemlock.

Cranston's intellectual abilities were varied. His first academic book, Freedom: A New Analysis (1954), covered history (the history of liberalism), politics (a precursive discussion of what Sir Isaiah Berlin would later analyse as negative and positive liberty) and a philosophical attempt to resolve or at least elucidate freedom of the will. The philosophical section was the least successful; and Cranston never again attempted pure philosophy. His main academic strengths were as a biographer and as an intellectual historian.

In his later years, Cranston moved to the political right, and expressed admiration for Margaret Thatcher. Cranston also contributed to The American Spectator magazine.

He died of a heart attack while taping a television production in London for the BBC.

(excerpted from Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book took me back in part to my university days when studying the Romantic period in German literature, so I thoroughly enjoyed it! Cranston divides the book up into the Romantic movement (not just lietrature, though that features heavily) of various nationalities, so French, English, German, Spanish, Italian, and then a chapter at the end covering those whose Romantic movements have featured less prominently in the canon (Russia, America). He describes well how the various national movements were either closely engaged with, indeed mainly drew upon, aspirations for national unity, especially in Germany, or were clear reactions against a heavily restrictive form of culture which preceded Romanticsim, as in France (literature of the three unities, e.g.). I managed to read this in a couple of days, which is quite an achievement for me!