Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts covered in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book defines the meaning for nineteenth-century Europe of the Enlightenment and the French Revolution as perceived by Jacob Burckhardt, John Stuart Mill, and Alexis De Tocqueville. It deals with contemporary Europe seen through aristocratic liberal eyes, the former presenting the aristocratic liberal analysis of Europe's social structure and dominant ideas, and examines the attitudes of Burckhardt, Mill, and Tocqueville toward the state and politics. The book then examines the aristocratic liberals' characteristic rhetoric, and analyzes the values both explicit and implicit in its use. It also focuses on the rather different solutions Burckhardt, Mill, and Tocqueville proposed for their common problematic while bringing out their shared emphasis on education. The book seeks to relate aristocratic liberalism to European liberalism as a whole, and makes suggestions about the types, meanings, and boundary lines of European liberalism in between 1830–1870.