Goodbye To All That?
John Roberts finds nationalism a better bet than the idylls of Marx for the longue duree of historical understanding.
Among the few lectures I heard as an undergraduate which has left still vivid impression were those given by Alan Taylor for the centenary of 1848, the year of revolutions. The date sparked off a characteristically brilliant and intellectually stimulating performance. Week after week, we sat in the Examination Schools and traced the flowering around Europe of the 'Springtime of the Nations'. Of course, other themes of that year cropped up, above all, social conflict.
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