A history blog, focusing primarily on the author's research and reading in American (particularly colonial, Revolutionary, and Native American) history.
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Quote of the Week
"In France, the bourgeoisie, after the great Revolution, resorted to every kind of desperate expedient for avoiding responsibility - empire, revived monarchy, sham monarchy, sham empire - until the failure of all left them with no escape from responsibility in the Third Republic, and even that perished from lack of a true governing class." A.J.P. Taylor, in The Habsburg Monarchy, 1809-1918 (new edition, London, 1948), p. 138. I don't think Taylor is entirely fair to the Third Republic, but I suppose it was hard for someone who remembered that republic's last few years to credit it with ever having produced responsible legislators or capable leaders.
[Image at right: the coat-of-arms of the aforementioned "sham monarch," Louis-Philippe (1830-48).]
No comments:
Post a Comment