Quote of the Day - 03/25/2012
/The 18th century presents an anomaly, long recognized by historians. Rightly labeled the Age of Reason or the Enlightenment, it nevertheless came to an end with an act of national violence, the French Revolution, and the ascendancy in Europe of a ‘man on a white charger’ – Napoleon Bonaparte. - John L. Beatty and Oliver A. Johnson in Heritage of Western Civilization, Volume 2 (From Revolutions to Modernity) (9th Edition)
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Why do we seek to name periods of time with such glorious phrases? Calling a period ‘the Age of Reason or the Enlightenment’ implies that the whole period can be characterized in a sound bite when, obviously, there were a lot of other things happening during the time period that do not fit with the words at all. It is always a simplification and simplification is only good if we remember that it is just that.
It works for summation but presents a challenge when we want to dig deeper. In the example of the Age of Reason - Why did it end in the bloody violence of the French Revolution and ignore (or promote) the profiteering in human trafficking taking Africans to the Americas? There was darkness to the Age of Reason that runs counter to the words.
What about names for other historical periods of western history? What do they mean to you and how aware are you of elements of those time periods that are not represented by the names? (Note: I’ve intentionally sorted them rather than listing them in chronological order. They are all easily findable on Wikipedia.
- Age of Discovery
- Age of Sail
- Between the Wars
- Classical antiquity
- Dark Ages
- Little Ice Age
- Medieval
- Modern Contemporary
- Neoclassicism
- Pre-Socratic
- Renaissance
