The Romantic Revolution: A History (Modern Library Chronicles) [Paperback]

"Every age has its own social context, its own intellectual climate, and takes it for granted, as we take ours. Because it was taken for granted, it is not explicitly expressed in the documents of the time: it has to be deduced and reconstructed." (p.125) Tim Blanning's overarching strength as a historian is his ability to provide readers with this culture and climate, as his approving quote of Hugh Trevor-Roper above.

In this superb introduction to the Romantic Movement, Blanning carries the reader from its earliest intimations, with Rousseau's rejection of the Enlightenment's philosophes and the cult of Rationalism with his own cult of the individual, through his disciples in Germany such as Goethe and Herder, then up to England and the Romantic poets. Art, music and literature are represented and the latter part of the books touches upon the work of various artists in different media. The second section of the book, after the first lays out the historical background, explores the dark unconscious of Romanticism including dreams, madness and the heroes and anti-heroes of the movement. The third section deals with the idea of language being representational of a national identity, the "rediscovery" of history and the use of myth.

Blanning has to be one of the most readable historians writing today, as his majestic The Pursuit of Glory proves, and he is clearly familiar with both the primary and secondary sources of this period. Thus his seemingly effortless synthesis of materials is readily explained. And as the Modern Library Chronicles series forces its authors to be succinct, there are no longuers in this history and occasional flashes of wit. (Investigating the origin of the phrase "art for art's sake", Blanning concludes "this was a German idea, turned into a slogan by an Englishman and recorded by a Frenchman"). (p.47)

There are few faults to be found. While Blanning categorizes certain composers as Romantic, he never fully explains what makes their music so. And his coverage of various writers and painters can appear arbitrary. But his strengths far outweigh any quibbles and he has written an entertaining, brief and very informed book.

It's hard in less than 200 pages to go into a great deal of detail, but in this book, Blanning manages to sketch out the why and how of romanticism. Why this "movement" began, as a reaction against the Enlightenment, but also as an outgrowth of societal and political change. How romanticism spread, through the most important countries - Germany, France and England - and how new modes of production led to the diffusion of romantic ideas.

For the romantic movement is more than just an artistic movement, even though it covered the major forms of art: music, literature and painting. Many of the causes of its spread were due to new structures, institutions and technologies. Romantic music was spawned in part by the change from patronage to public support for musicians, both in performance and in publication, and to performances both in concert halls and in salons. Literature spread through the many changes in technology that made printing and books cheaper. And images circulated in the form of lithographs and other types of prints that were developed in the early 19th century.

Romanticism is, at heart, about the imagination, about feeling, about art for art's sake, about the individual being the most important element in the world. Beethoven is the best example of the romantic artist, with Schubert a close second. But romanticism had many forms, from the near-transcendence of Beethoven's late works, or of Schubert's finest songs, to the development of characters in literature, such as in Hugo and Balzac. The rise of tourism - notably to the Alps and the Rhine - led to a new appreciation of nature, and a discovery of other lands and worlds. All in all, the romantic movement is probably the greatest cultural and artistic revolution of our time, and this book, in less than 200 pages, sketches the main figures and themes.

While this book is just an introduction, it gives plenty of suggestions of books to read, music to listen to, and art to see to better understand just how powerful this period was. This is a revolution that has not ended; our arts and culture are still influenced by the ideas of the romantics. And this book helps grasp just how important this period was.

This delightful text by Tim Blanning, the Professor of Modern European History at Cambridge University, is a delightful introduction to the many ways in which the Romantic Period impacted European culture in its heyday (1750-1850) and, in some ways, continuing down to the present.

First and foremost, Banning presents this period as a dialectical challenge to the reigning Enlightenment Era that preceded it. That era, focused as it was on empirical and scientific advances in mathematics, physics, chemistry, philosophy, etc., left open the gates for a period emphasizing interiority - feelings, emotions, intuitions, the spirit, the soul, genius, charisma, etc.

Romanticism was a reaction against the aridity and soullessness of the Enlightenment, and it expressed itself in poetry, music, literature, and in a new aesthetic of religion and a reevaluation of the medieval period. Symbolically, the Enlightenment was preoccupied with light while the Romantic period was intrigued by darkness. The interior ocean within the soul, rather than the external geographic oceans that bound the continents was the music to which it was attuned.

Its fascination with emotion and spirit led it to a reorientation toward history, a fascination with genius, and a search for the wellsprings of nationalism.

Among its famous artistic representatives were Beethoven, Berlioz, Liszt, Wagner, Wordsworth, Rousseau, Goethe, Stendahl, Poe, etc. All artists that influence us still.