Page 1 - History 2020

Verwood U3A History Group - Topic for 2019-2020

Paradise Lost: Four Stories of Revolution 1688 – 1832

“Between the idea
And the reality
Between the motion
And the act
Falls the Shadow.”

(T.S. Elliot “The Hollow Men)

“The endless cycle of idea and action,
Endless invention, endless experiment,
Brings knowledge of motion, but not of stillness”

“O wretched generation of enlightened men,

Betrayed in the mazes of your ingenuities”
(T.S. Elliot “The Rock”)

th
We will look at the period 1688-1832, the “long 18 century”, through four stories of
revolution. Each story is focused on a different city, each illuminates a different
aspect of the modern world, but each is also beset with contradictions. Are these
stories of success or failure?

1. Stability: London
How Britain evolved a revolutionary form of constitutional and parliamentary
government while pretending to be restoring past glories. Sessions to include: the
Glorious Revolution of 1688; Burke and conservatism; Macaulay and the Whig
interpretation of history.

2. Enlightenment: Paris
How the hope and optimism of the Enlightenment gave way to Revolutionary Terror
and Napoleonic dictatorship. Sessions to include: the Enlightenment and its enemies;
interpretations of the French Revolution; Napoleon “the Great”.

3. Democracy: Philadelphia
How the American Revolution made it necessary to create a nation. Sessions to
include: defining the American Revolution; the Philadelphia Convention; the Founding
Fathers.