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Books > Social sciences > Politics & government > Political activism > Revolutions & coups
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Phantom Terror - The Threat of Revolution and the Repression of Liberty 1789-1848 (Paperback)
Loot Price: R395
Discovery Miles 3 950
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Phantom Terror - The Threat of Revolution and the Repression of Liberty 1789-1848 (Paperback)
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List price R457
Loot Price R395
Discovery Miles 3 950
You Save R62 (14%)
Expected to ship within 12 - 17 working days
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A magnificent and timely examination of an age of fear, subversion,
suppression and espionage, Adam Zamoyski explores the attempts of
the governments of Europe to police the world in a struggle against
obscure forces, seemingly dedicated to the overthrow of
civilisation. The advent of the French Revolution confirmed the
worst fears of the rulers of Europe. They saw their states as
storm-tossed vessels battered by terrible waves coming from every
quarter and threatened by horrific monsters from the deep. Rulers'
nerves were further unsettled by the voices of the Enlightenment,
envisaging improvement only through a radical transformation of
existing structures, with undeniable implications for the future
role of the monarchy and the Church. Napoleon's arrival on the
European stage intensified these fears, and the changes he wrought
across Europe fully justified them. Yet he also brought some
comfort to those rulers who managed to survive: he had tamed the
revolution in France and the hegemony he exercised over Europe was
a kind of guarantee against subversion. Once Napoleon was toppled,
the monarchs of Europe took over this role for themselves. However,
the nature of their attempts to impose order were not only
ineffectual, they also managed to weaken the bases of that order.
As counter-productive as anything, for example, was the use of
force. Reliance on standing armies to maintain order only served to
politicize the military and to give potential revolutionaries the
opportunity to get their hands on a ready armed force. The wave of
revolutions in 1848 might have embodied the climactic clash that
many had come to expect, but it was no Armageddon, lacking the kind
of mass support that rulers had dreaded and revealed the
groundlessness of most of their fears. Interestingly, the sense of
a great, ill-defined, subversive threat never went away, indeed it
lingers on even today in the minds of world leaders. Adam
Zamoyski's compelling history explores how the rulers and
governments of the time really did envisage the future and how they
meant to assure it.
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