ABSTRACT
In December 1950, at its annual meeting, the American Historical Association entitled one of its major topics of discussion: "New Views on Metternich." Our traditional view of Metternich as a narrow-minded arch-reactionary must be revised in the light of the documents, including the Austrian and Hapsburg archives available after World War I. Metternich's aristocratic system depended on diplomacy. Democratic liberalism depended on what Bismarck dismissed as "majority votes." Protest must be registered against the habit of calling every anti-Metternichian a "liberal." Sometimes his opponents were genuine liberals or democrats, who may properly stir our sympathy. Metternich's objection to capitalist dictatorship over the masses by middle class nationalists and liberals was not just an insincere slogan. The difference between an evolutionary, Burkean conservative like Metternich and a static, revolution-breeding reactionary like the Emperor Francis is brought out by Metternich's letter of November 3, 1817, to his monarch.
