In the decades around 1800, counter-revolutionary authors from all over Europe defended European civilization against the onslaught of nationalist revolutionaries who were bent on the destruction of the existing order. In opposition to the new revolutionary world of universal and abstract principles, the counter-revolutionary writers extoled the concept of a gradually developing European society and political order, founded on a set of historical and ‘ultimately divine’ institutions that had guaranteed Europe's unique freedom, moderation, diversity, and progress since the fall of the Roman Empire.

These counter-revolutionary Europeanists drew on the cosmopolitan Enlightenment and simultaneously criticized its alleged revolutionary legacy. Throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, these ideas of European history and civilization were rediscovered and adapted to new political contexts, shaping in manifold ways our contested idea of European history and memory until today.

What Lok offers in his book is a radical new scholarly interpretation of the topics of Enlightenment legacies, counter-revolution, and conservatism, as well as the construction of the European past and the international order, while giving a historical perspective on the contemporary (radical) right as well as current expressions of European identity and memory.

Book launch at Spui25

In celebration of the publication, there will be a book launch at SPUI25 on April 18, 2023. Follow this link to read more about the book/event and to register.