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Please excuse me while I do a little happy dance over finishing The Crisis of the European Mind by Paul Hazard
What to say about a book that covers European intellectual history from 1680-1715? Judging from all my page points there is a lot and I’d like to tell you about some of the fascinating things I learned but I will save specifics for another post or two.
What I will say today is that this is a heady book. It is not a hard or complicated read nor is it slow, ponderous and dull. It moves along at a good clip and is filled with Hazard’s delightful wit and sarcasm. But it also requires attention and regular and sustained reading. I had a hard time at first because there are breaks within the chapters and I would stop reading there and not get back to the book for a few days. Bad, bad, bad. I’d find I had lost the thread and would have to go back a page or two and reread to pick it up again. Far better to read in chapter chunks. The chapters can be long though so I had to make sure to not let more than a day pass before getting back to it.
What Hazard does in this book is really interesting. He aims to show all the elements that lead into the Enlightenment period, how they were brewing long before the period and from what quarters they were bubbling up. It is ambitious. Does he succeed? Mostly.
I am not an expert on the period, my assessment comes from whether I feel like I know more about it now than I did before. And I do. I haven’t quite connected all the dots yet though. That’s where Hazard sort of slips. There is so much going on at once in so many different countries that no matter how the book is organized it would make for some difficulties. Hazard chose to not use chronology but more of a general and broad view of religion, politics, science, philosophy, art and literature. And because of this I can’t say what ideas came up first or were circulating at the same time in the different areas of thought. I can generally see how they influenced each other but that’s about it. A dated timeline would have been most helpful. If I had known of that fact early on I could have made my own timeline as I went along.
Hazard is strong on his analysis of philosophy, science and religion, weak on politics and literature.
What was really interesting was looking at ideas in their infancy that were later more fully developed in the Enlightenment period and that influenced Thomas Jefferson and other American founders. Also fascinating was how some of the things people argued about then we are still arguing about today, specifically in matters of religion and science and the role of each in society. One would hope that we might have progressed in our thinking over all this time, come to some conclusions or at least a balance. Nope. We still struggle with the same issues especially when it comes to making a god of science.
If you find yourself in the mood for a good history book that doesn’t have to do with Kings and Queens and wars and peace but ideas, then this is the book to go to. Now I am going to go see if I can’t put together some particular thoughts on particular moments in the book to share in another post or two.
It sounds like a fascinating book, Stefanie and congratulations on reaching the end! It does look as if it would be useful to have a version with things like timelines and potted biographies to make the whole thing easier to navigate. I think Hazard was probably right to go for a thematic approach. As you suggest the questions Hazard discusses are still as hot as ever. mMy old Penguin version of this book looks pretty austere but I may just give it a shot…
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Ian, thanks! It is a fascinating book especially since we can watch so many of the ideas we take for granted today as they begin to emerge and see how truly radical they were. I do think the thematic approach was a good choice, it’s just that there is so much material it is sometimes hard to keep straight. Not Hazard’s fault, expect for that missing timeline!
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Oh do I ever love that video clip. At about midway in Snoopy’s dance it looks like he was about to go into Gangnam Style!
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Cip, ha! Snoopy Gangnam Style! I love it 🙂
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I so want to read this book but I am embroiled in the Europe of the Middle Ages at the moment and I am going to have to work through the whole of the Renaissance before I can even think about it. Still, I have made a note of the title and it will be there on my list when I’ve marched through another three hundred years of history:)
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Alex, it’s very good and I hope you have the chance to read it once you get out of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance.
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I loved the book – though I did feel that considering the canvas, Hazard at times had more to talk than could actually make up for a concise narration, but I loved the book! Loved his ideas. his humour and the fact that though he was a serious accademic, the book never reads like the tomes we had to browse through in college years and yet is not a “bubble gum” history! Just the right sorta book before we go in for our Historical Fiction course! 😉
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cirtnecce, I didn’t realize you had read this! So glad you loved it too. I think Hazard could have written a whole book just on each section, but he did a fantastic job highlighting as much as possible and going a little deeper into some. Not a college text or bubble gum is right. I wish more history books were written like this. And oh, I hadn’t thought how nice it is to finish it just before the historical fiction course! I think there are five of us who have signed up. I will try to send out emails to everyone not later than this weekend so we can figure out how we want to hold discussions.
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I’m intrigued but I’ll be honest if it’s a bit on the dull side I think I would probably not follow through to the end. It sounds fascinating and I probably should read more history. I look forward to reading more of your thoughts on this one!
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Iliana, I didn’t find the book dull at all, not for a moment. That said, it is also not one everyone would like. While it isn’t a text book it also isn’t what you might call a popular history either. It is well worth the time and effort if you feel so inclined.
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Congrats on finishing! It sounds like a great read. It’s not often I pick up history books, but I will keep this one in mind for when I’m in the mood. I’m glad you enjoyed it!
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Rebecca, thanks! It was a great read even if it took me so gosh darn long to do it. Since you like 18th c lit you might like this one should you ever be in the mood.
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Your experiences with the book sound like mine–I started it, but it has been languishing (as I try and finish the very chunky Palliser), so that I think I am going to have to start from the beginning again when I pick it back up! Normally I can just get right back to read a book that has been set aside, but I think it might not work with this one. Yes, that sustained reading is a good idea–when am I going to have time for it, though. I should really just focus on it…..but you know how that goes. I am doing abysmally with my NYRBs and novellas at the moment!
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Danielle, oh no. If you have to start over I hope you hadn’t gotten so very far. I hope you are able to get to it, it really is worth the effort in the end. I feel like finishing it has removed a big block from the little pile of NYRBs that have accumulated. I started the next one and so far, so good!
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