History of Romanticism, that amorphous movement celebrating darkness, individuality, and wholeness
Review of The Romantic Revolution: A History by Tim Blanning
From the moment that Rousseau rebelled against the Enlightenment – with its assurances that everything could be known and arbitrated by reason – a new and unruly movement emerged. The Romantics would challenge what we can know, how we should study the world and ourselves, and questioned even the precepts of happiness and the "good life". As Blanning proves, it provided the dark, Dionysian yang to the brilliant yin of the Enlightenment, a whipsaw alternative that led to nationalist ideologies, depth psychology, new forms of democratic politics, and the idealization of art and artists as a replacement for God and institutional religion.
The Romantics advanced a radical critique of the ascendancy of rationalism. First, and most important, they argued that beyond the light of reason, there were dark forces within us – an animal side, a subconscious mind, something chaotic and uncontrollable – that also governs us. Second, to study the world, it should not be reduced to its component parts and reassembled (as the Enlightenment Philosophes advocated), which can only lead to the neglect of the whole, the essence, the true meaning. This was an argument for vitalism, the mysterious gestalt that somehow animated the whole. Instead of studying disembodied artifacts, the Romantics preferred to study organisms as they functioned in their environment. Third, they believed, not everything should be known, but had to remain mysteries or unexplained – as with reason and logic, the human mind operated within limits, which should be celebrated instead of fought; much as the body inexplicably follows its own impulses and passions, life was to be experienced and felt, not just analyzed. This chain of philosophical reasoning began with Kant.
The earliest expressions of this radical movement were in art. Music was perhaps the quintessential form, in particular with Beethoven, who refused to compromise his vision in the search for popular approval. He became an exemplar of genius, an individual who could transcend the normal and mundane to produce works of such quality that they reflected a religious-like power. There were also poets like Byron, novelists like Mary Shelley, painters like Eugène Delacroix. They were the rock stars of their time, often dying young and dramatically.
Later, Romantics with their vitalism and unexplained causes, delineated the 19th century ideology of ethno-nationalism in the newly formed nation states. The root of this idea came from Fichte. This led, of course, to fascism with its "Volk", a consequence of which was the exclusion of the other, but also influenced popular revolts (e.g. 1848). Later, it helped to shape how democracies functioned, as they began to attempt to obey as well as harness "the will of the people" at the moment that popular participation increased and new communications media became available.
As the movement evolved, there were many moments of friction with Enlightenment forces, including industrialization but also in the establishment of university disciplines and scientific research. These proved to be fruitful conflicts, leading to modernism – with its assumption of optimal forms – but also to depth psychology, with Freud's Interpretation of Dreams and Jung's Collective Unconscious. Indeed, the polarizing oppositions survive to this very day: some see a technocratic world of reason (the logical endpoint of the Enlightenment precepts) as a prison determined by the biases of an elite rather than rational decisions, advocating for market forces as the best arbiters of efficiency and fairness. Rousseau would have said something similar, though perhaps as a corporatist fascist.
I have a particular soft spot for the Romantics. With their skepticism and self awareness, they offered the best challenge to Enlightenment intellectual arrogance. This book offers a splendid complement to the more philosophical Roots of Romanticism by Isaiah Berlin. It is vividly written, evoking the art and thoughts of its protagonists. An absolutely wonderful read.
Related review on the philosophical importance of the Romantics:
Review from 2019.