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From Rousseau to totalitarian democracy:

The French Revolution in J. L. Talmon's
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ARTICLE in HISTORY & MEMORY JANUARY 1991

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From Rousseau to Totalitarian Democracy: The French Revolution in J. L. Talmon's

Historiography
Author(s): Jos Brunner
Source: History and Memory, Vol. 3, No. 1 (Spring, 1991), pp. 60-85
Published by: Indiana University Press
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Jose

Brunner

From

to

Rousseau

French Revolution

Past

Totalitarian

in J. L. Talmon's

The

Democracy:

Historiography1

and Present

servirait a rien, si Ton n'y met les tristesses

dictum is the motto chosen by
du present.'' Jules Michelet's
The
for
Myth of theNation and the Vision of the
Jacob Talmon
he explains
that his
In the book's
Revolution.
epilogue
its
the events of the French Revolution,
fascination with
was
in
started
when
he
1937-38,
ideologists and activists,
between
the
the Jacobin
struck
by
period's
analogy
"L'histoire

ne

of

combination

an

ultra-democratic

constitution

and

terror

on which he was writing an undergraduate

seminar paper at
trials
which
took
the
time.2
and the Moscow
place
a
examines
the
when
historian
past, he always
Undoubtedly,
writes

in

some

way

about

the

present.

It appears,

however,

that

not
the
historical
only
provided
experience
or subtext to his historical vision, but that its
background
on his thinking brought him to read
impact
overpowering
drawn from later
of analogies
backwards
by means
history
onto earlier ones.
the
For Talmon,
events and projected
- that
of
the
the
the
of
is,
past
writings
philosophes
meaning
as well as the events of the French Revolution
and Rousseau,
- is
shed on
light that Talmon
supplied by the present. The
the French Revolution was refracted by the lens provided by
and its aftermath, with the result that
the Russian Revolution
a Stalin, and finally even Rousseau
turned
became
Robespierre
- into an
- albeit
of
the
Gulag. Already
ideologist
indirectly
of The Origins of Totalitarian Democracy
on
the first page
describes himself as writing in a
(hereafter Origins) Talmon
liberal
and
in which an empirical
world
of
crisis,
period
a totalitarian Messianic
with
collides
democracy.
democracy
one
the preceding
From the vantage point of this collision,
hundred and fifty years were for him but a long period of
Talmon's

From Rousseau

to Totalitarian

Democracy

a cataclysmic clash between

the
leading up to
preparation
the French
forces of good and evil. To be sure, considering
as two of a kind, and even
the Russian Revolution
and
was
also part of the Bolshevik
them into one,
telescoping
in 1903
such as when Lenin claimed
self-image,
revolutionary
44
a
to
committed
that
[a] Jacobin firmly
proletariat
organizing
that has become conscious of its class interest is precisely what
a

is."3 Talmon's
historiography
revolutionary social democrat
of the Russian
this metaphorical
self-understanding
adopts
the bitter lessons of
learned
but - having
revolutionaries,
to self
it
is made
its
until
extends
Stalinism
logic

de (con) struct.
to lead up to a plea for a
comments are not meant
These
of
transhistorical
and
neutral
history; for there is no
writing
and
theoretical
without
premises. As John
political
history
Dunn puts it: "The value-free study of revolutions is a logical
impossibility for those who live in the real world."4 Moreover,
to the capacity of the French
Francois Furet has pointed
is only
still to stir heated
Revolution
controversy, which
to
The
of
its
Russian
Glorious
that
counterpart.
comparable
Revolution and the American Revolution nowadays hardly ever
arouse

readers.
have

or their
political passions among professional historians
In terms of their function in public rhetoric, they

become

part

of

consensus

commemorative

celebrated

to the
in shared political
rituals. This has not happened
- it is still common
its
French Revolution
practice among
historians to take an explicitly political stand and to compare
it to

the

Russian

Revolution.5

Furet

also

acknowledges

that

the

identification of the two revolutions with one another has

to scholarship, since questions
about the present
contributed
to the study
may add new interest, perspectives and emphases
criticism of what he calls
of the past. But in a condemning

the "Lenino-populist
by the French
propounded
vulgate"
a comment
that is
Revolution's
left-wing historians, he makes
an
as
anti
indictment
of
its
Talmon's
opposite,
equally apt
revolutionary

catechism:

For it to be useful, the scrutiny of the present must

and a series of new
remain just that, a questioning

61

Jose

Brunner

a
not
and
mechanical
impassioned
hypotheses,
... the
onto
the
of
the past
present
projection
the
French
of
Revolution
has
gained
interpretation
neither in richness nor in depth for being accompanied,
as in a minor key, by a second,
on
implicit discourse
that second and latent discourse
the Russian Revolution;
like a cancer
inside
the historical
has proliferated
62

analysis to the point of destroying

very significance.5

its complexity

and

its

in the shadow of the Cold War

Since the book's appearance
of
mode
in 1952, the various problems
besetting Talmon's
In
been
in
have
the
criticized
literature.7
repeatedly
analysis
this paper,
too, I shall refer to elements vitiating Talmon's
them as
narrative strategy, but instead of simply denouncing
fallacies I shall take them as guides to the deep structure of
the
and build on
them to reconstruct
his historiography

of emplotment, philosophical
imagery, theory of truth, mode
of his text.8 In a critical
and
message
ideological
anthropology
- and some
to
references
of
complementary
Origins
reading
he
two volumes
that
the
the other
trilogy
comprising
a period of three decades - I shall differentiate
published over
three layers which together make up its textual edifice. These
can be seen to represent the three authorial personae
that
as I shall show, though
Talmon
adopts in writing history;9 for
itself as the work of a
book ostensibly presents
Talmon's

that by
historian, none of its textual layers contains much
stuff
the
of
be
considered
would
standards
history. For
today's
on
and
historical
details
of
is
said
little
instance,
processes
their specific and unique causes and purposes. Beyond general
in
summaries of texts and events, one finds
surveys and
text above all metaphysical postulates, diagnoses of a lay
Talmon's
a moralist. Since
of
each
psychoanalyst, and preachings of
the
of
the
transcends
authorial
Talmon's
personae
history
truth on the
in order to reveal a perpetual
French Revolution
human condition, we are taught about the reality of faith and
the fears, hopes and
the effects of climates of ideas; about
inner
of
human
in
world
hidden
the
desires
beings and their
the
on
about
power of good and
impact
politics; and, finally,

From

Rousseau

to Totalitarian

Democracy

evil and the nature of virtues and vices. My paper will be

devoted primarily to an exposition and interpretation of these
three layers in Talmon's
text; but since Talmon was concerned
with origins it seems only fitting that I, too, shall attempt to
establish the origins of his historiography.
Religion

and Reality

historical argument? He claims that

then, is Talmon's
What,
core and
both totalitarianism and liberalism had a democratic
were a result of the decline
of
that the two doctrines
status
the disappearance
of feudal
traditional religion and
he says, gave birth to two currents
society. The Enlightenment,
an empirical,
a
liberal one, which recognizes
of democracy:
plurality

of

social

realms,

and

messianic,

totalitarian

one,

to the political
which tries to reduce all planes of existence
of the one absolute
truth.10
and claims to be in possession
to Talmon,
both these currents of thought are
According
a cluster of
of them represent
since both
democratic,
as
such
ideals,
individualism, freedom, polidcal
Enlightenment
and
is
liberal democracy
equality. However,
participation
cautious, reformist, proceeds by trial and error, and recognizes
levels of human
various
endeavor
from politics.
apart
believes
in
Totalitarian
the
democracy
perfectibility of human
a
in
of
and
the
possibility
preordained
beings
political order
a perfected
of
the
needs
it
reflecting
humanity. Hence
demands
the abolition of religious authority and extends the
into the previously
scope of politics by stepping
religious
realms of thought and feeling. Aiming at a final scheme, at
to arrive, it shows a
which humans are bound
disrespect for
the wisdom of the ages which it justifies by its commitment to
the unlimited power of abstract reason. Mobilizing
the people
and evoking public enthusiasm for an ideal future, a vanguard
of prophets, saviors and Messiahs
takes upon itself the task of
- if
masses
a
for
the
necessary by
radically new age
educating
terror. Thus
the faith of modern
totalitarian democracy
takes
on its manifest political
on
form as "a dictatorship
resting
popular

enthusiasm.""

63

Jose Brunner

account
Talmon's
of
the
of
However,
development
totalitarian democracy does not focus on phenomena
usually
associated with the writing of political or intellectual history let alone social history - such as individual actions and lives,
social processes and classes, public institutions, ideologies and
texts. Certainly, references to all of these can be found in his

64

events, institutions and

work; but his writings treat people,
theories as epiphenomena
of a spiritual essence which in his
the hidden
view constitutes
force of democratic
propelling
totalitarianism. This essence is said to provide the impetus for
a development
which originated
in French
thought of the
century, but
eighteenth
in
the
twentieth
only
introduction to Origins:

full political
objectification
he
in the
century. As
explains

reached

this study is concerned with is a state of mind, a

a pattern of mental,
of
way
feeling, a disposition,
to
emotional and behavioristic elements, best compared
... [I]t can
a
the set of attitudes engendered
by
religion.

What

that the all-embracing attitudes of this

hardly be denied
kind, once crystallized, are the real substance of history.
The concrete elements of history, the acts of politicians,
the aspirations
and prejudices

of

its

religion

of people,
the ideas, values, preferences
of an age, are the outward manifestations

in

the widest

sense.12

that "[t]he modern

later he postulates
A few pages
again
secular religion must first be treated as an objective reality."1*
to Political Messianism, The
reiterates in the introduction
He
Romantic Phase that what he writes "is not a history of ideas. Its
we may say,
subject is a climate of ideas, a frame of mind,
a role in
do
and
play
politicians
philosophers
faith."u Though
turns
them
his
idealist ontology
his historiographic
framework,
a
into prophets and high priests of
political religion, which,
In contrast to the
for him, constitutes "objective
reality."
material
historical
considers
religion, Talmon
a series of "different rationalizations
to
but
be
developments
... successive
and
a
of
impulse
semi-religious
primary
reality

of

to Totalitarian

From Rousseau

Democracy

elaborations and applications of a single sustained endeavour,"

as he explains in the trilogy's third volume.15
The postulate that - in the last instance - history is made of
an
climate
of
the
ideas,
provides
spiritual
intangible,
of
Talmon's
for
Indeed,
layer
historiography.
metaphysical
in the full sense of the
such climates are metaphysical
Talmon
word. They cannot be assessed and measured
by quantitative
or detailed
and
methods
investigations into the publication
texts. As Talmon
asks
distribution of political or philosophical
in our own days have actually
rhetorically: "How many people
read the Capital of Marx or the works of Freud? Few however
in these books have
would deny that the ideas propagated
to a degree
and
entered contemporary
thinking
experience
is such a thing as a climate of
There
that defies measurement.
ideas,

as

in

ideas

the air."]h

as a license for
this methodology
organicist
that is, for writing a history of the French
reductionism,
Revolution which turns all its diverse programs, participants
and events into components of one synthetic entity: the faith
totalitarianism. Since he reduces everything to
of democratic
an
of
parts
aggregate whose importance is greater than any of
Talmon

its

elements,

uses

Talmon

can

and

ignore

or

gloss

over

discrepancies

contradictions
between
theories, thinkers and activists
to
the
various
revolutionary factions, and make a
belonging
of
Communists,
Babouvists,
Jacobins,
medley
Blanquists,
sameness
to
and
Socialists
Anarchists.17
By
preferring
to uniqueness,
narrative
difference and repetition
Talmon's
aspects of similarity among these groups and
over-emphasizes
thus

creates

Another

cohesion

and

integration

where

there

was

none.

effect
of
Talmon's
idealist
questionable
can
be
in
discerned
the
of
historiography
trajectory
Origins,
which depicts three stages of the inevitable metamorphosis
of
beautiful dreams of perfect freedom and harmony into ugly
totalitarian monsters. The first part of the book is devoted to
the eighteenth-century
of a rational
philosophical
postulate

is singled out as
society, among which Jean Jacques Rousseau
the main villain. The second and third parts of the book deal
with Robespierre
and Saint-Just, Babeufs
and Buonarrotti's
is
program and the Babouvist plot of 1796. While Rousseau

65

Jose Brunner

the totalitarian faith's founder, the French Revolution

is the
event which turned it into historical reality: first in the Jacobin
terror of Year
II and
then in the Babouvist
plot. Hence
Talmon
refers to the plot as the event in which "in a flicker
of

an

self-awareness"

total

66

was

attempt

to

to

made

realize

its full extent.18 He

totalitarian democracy
acknowledges
but
"a
it
is
that
from the point of view of the
dny episode
but he argues that "[i]ts
broad course of the Revolution";
... for the evolution and the
crystallization of ideas
significance
and as a historic myth, could hardly be exaggerated."19 This
of Origins with
conclusion
Babeuf
somewhat
surprising
the shortcomings of Talmon's
demonstrates
narrative, which
to write
in
of
order
material
transcends
history
phenomena
in a
in the air." To place the French Revolution
about "ideas
never
to
to
Babeuf
who
dialectic leading up
managed
gather
even
a
within
tumultuous
and
sizable
post
following
is, to say the
revolutionary France never got beyond plotting
odd.

least,

even

Moreover,

own

in Talmon's

terms,

hardly be taken as proof for the sociological

ascribes to the totalitarian democratic faith.

he

of Freedom

Dialectics
Yehoshua
and

can

Babeuf

force which

comments

Arieli
of

mode

Indeed,

Talmon's

Freedom

and

analysis

dialectical

marked
on

narrative

sweeping

historical

that "Talmon's
a

has

vision

character."20
forces

transcendental

drives reads like a - possibly unintended

and psychological
in the
meditation on Hegel's
analysis of the French Revolution
a
entitled
"Absolute
In
Mind.
chapter
Phenomenology of
Terror"

Hegel

tries

to

come

to

terms

with

the

route
from
the
inevitable
but
leading
to the Jacobin regime.21 Closely
Rousseau
and
Enlightenment
of
lucid and elaborate
exposition
following Charles Taylor's
claim as follows: having
the chapter, I would sum up Hegel's
of
aware both of their nature as creatures capable
become
dialectical

of
this rational
will,
power
the world
to re-create
undertake
Enlightenment
all past authority
to its precepts and to question
according
this aspiration is to be also
and existing institutions. However,
rational

will

and

of

thinkers

the

to Totalitarian

From Rousseau

Democracy

downfall since it gives rise to the abstract

the Enlightenment's
in
freedom" exemplified
universal
and
principles of "absolute
of absolute
freedom
General Will. The demands
Rousseau's
the rational will
cannot acknowledge
any difference between
of an individual and the will of society as a whole. For only if
they become one can it be said that society is fully rational
and freedom absolute. Thus for a society to be free and based
on rational will alone means
that all that exists or happens
to be

has

takes

part

the result of decisions

but

also

reaches

the

in which

same

everybody not only

conclusion.

Otherwise,

the minority which has to conform to the majority's will could

not be said to be absolutely free. Hence,
the idea of absolute
cannot
tolerate any social differentiation;
for the
freedom
existence of people, groups or institutions with particularistic
a threat to its universality.
interests of their own poses

since anything that exists, differentiates, the idea of

the
freedom can only destroy. First it eliminates
not
then
all
factions
and
individuals
existing regime,
explicitly
aligned with the General Will, and finally even those who
of lacking civic virtue and harboring
might be suspected
different intentions. Since
their very existence
threatens the
General Will, they deserve death, for what is being destroyed
However,
absolute

is

irrationality

and

unfreedom.22

affinities with Hegel are striking. For both of them

on which high hopes
are
the slaughter bench
are
because
their
philosophical
principles
to as
flawed. What
Talmon
the
refers
fundamentally
of the lofty principles
that condemned
the
perfectionism
to destructiveness, Hegel
French Revolution
calls vacuity, but
the terms refer to the same characteristic. Thus
basically
account of the issues and contradictions
Talmon's
involved
could just as well sum up Hegel's discussion as his own:
Talmon's
history is
butchered

was
This
the
dilemma of the
could be defined
and coercion
in

central

of Jacobinism:
the
problem
men.
It
and
will
the
of
single purpose
as the problem of freedom, conformity
a
two
regime which claims to achieve
an
and
exclusive
form
of
aims, Liberty
incompatible
social existence.
It is at bottom Rousseau's
of
problem

67

Jose Brunner
the general will, with an equally strong emphasis placed
on acdve
and universal pardcipadon
in willing
the
as on the exclusive nature of the general
will
general
will.23

68

from the French Revolution

However, when
they extrapolate
to later developments
and Talmon
and events, Hegel
part.
his
historical
dialectic
takes him
remains
optimistic:
Hegel
from France to Germany, from flaw to completion, until finally
a synthetic absolute
is
is reached
in which
the particular
a
is
with
the universal.
The
reconciled
Phenomenology

consciousness
matures,
Bildungsroman, where
philosophical
learns from its errors and gains self-knowledge and freedom.
in his Introduction to the Philosophy ofHistory, Hegel
Moreover,
a
portrays
cunning dialectic which ultimately gives birth to
a rational scheme of things,
freedom for all and produces
even

ambitions
by the narrow-minded
though it is engendered
actions of power-seeking egotistical individuals.24 Talmon's
dialectic knows no such happy end; it allows only
melancholy
for more of the same. In this sense, then, Origins departs from
scheme of historical progress. By depicting a process
Hegel's
social
in which hopes for a universal and perfectly harmonious
and

order

always

regimes
reconciliation

turn

on

based
or

into

power-seeking

coercion

and

terror,

and

narrow-minded

it remains

without

consolation.

to Talmon,
there are "two instincts most deeply
According
in human nature, the yearning for salvation and
embedded
the love of freedom"; but, as he tells us, it is impossible to
once. Attempts to do so, "are bound
satisfy both of them at
to result, if not in unmitigated
tyranny and serfdom, at least
are the
in the monumental
hypocrisy and self-deception which
concomitants

of

totalitarian

democracy."25

Because

they

were

the
toward rationalist perfection,
tempted by their drive
in
became
radical
the
of
trapped
Enlightenment
proponents
to a
of freedom." Aspiring
calls "the paradox
what Talmon
society, they invited the regime to
perfect and harmonious
itself as representing and enforcing the natural order
proclaim
and to compel its subjects to obey in the name of freedom
their true future selves which will be
that is, to obey

to Totalitarian

From Rousseau

Democracy

the subjugation
their present,
of
through
emancipated
In
this
Talmon
selves.26
fashion,
argues,
empirical
to make
arises from the doomed
totalitarianism
attempt
and to combine
individual freedom
incompatibles compatible
with an exclusive and harmonious
pattern of society. In the
to The Myth of theNation he even postulates
"the
epilogue
and inescapable
law which
existence of some unfathomable
causes

Salvationist

revolutionary

to evolve

schemes

into

regimes

to
of terror, and the promise of a perfect direct democracy
assume
in practice
the form of totalitarian dictatorship."27
concludes
fifteen hundred pages of
Rather ironically, Talmon
to possess
those
claim
who
considered
argument
against
truth and to have knowledge of historical laws and
absolute
the natural order by setting forth a historical law of his own,
less deterministic,
and
which
is no
arbitrary, abstract
than the one he attacks. In After Utopia Judith
speculative
turns the
such an approach
Shklar points out that while
intellectualism
of
against themselves,
Enlightenment
principles
it maintains a belief in a rigid sequence of causes and events
and in the power of grand rationalist ideas to drive history toward
they were
only, if once
thought to bring progress
now

perfecdon,

with

associated

totalitarian

calamity.28

and Paranoia

Politics
Let

are

they

us

now

consider

how

Talmon's

second

authorial

persona, the lay psychoanalyst, appears in his book. Compared

with the first two chapters, the third chapter, in which Talmon
turns

to Rousseau,

with

opens

drasdc

of

change

tone.

In

to psychobiography - which is absent from his discussion

and Helvetius - he returns from the reification of
of Holbach
faith as a historical force to real human beings. Talmon's

move

Rousseau

is

"a

motherless

vagabond

starved

of

warmth

and

who turns into "one of the most ill-adjusted and

natures
who
have
left a
of
their
record
egocentric
and whose
predicament"
thought is "the envious dream of a
affection,"

tormented

paranoiac."29

At

the

same

dme

Talmon

accuses

the

of having transformed what hitherto had

Geneva philosopher
been only "intellectual
into "a great collective
speculation"

69

Jose Brunner

70

In his eyes, Rousseau's

by a stroke of his pen.
experience''
the
Will
"marked
the
birth of the modern
of
General
concept
secular religion, not merely as a system of ideas, but as a
For Talmon
the lay psychoanalyst, totalitarian
passionate faith."
the
brainchild
of a sick individual. Later,
is
thus
democracy
as
and
too, are diagnosed
Babeuf,
Saint-Just
Robespierre,
the
of
Never
from
present,
losing sight
suffering
paranoia.31
adds that his own period also produced
Talmon
specimens

of psychological
"of the strange combination
ill-adjustment
and totalitarian ideology."32 Times of crisis, stress and struggle,
to climb to the top
he argues, allow severely neurotic people
in political
their personality disorders
and let them express
theories and actions. Thus, those who are incapable of finding
can escape
into the lonely
balanced
relationships with others
of
dictatorship.
heights
Much has been written on the problematic nature of psycho
or psychoses
of historical
histories
focusing on neuroses
no need
to repeat these criticisms
is
and
there
personalities,
is
here at great length.33 Suffice it to say that the evidence
as
ad
and
that
to
these
crazy
figures
justify labeling
inadequate
to avoid
detailed
historians
enable
hominem arguments
events
and
issues
and
into
social
political
inquiries
of
the
for
circumstances.
instance,
neglect
They
legitimize,
or
a particular
as
of
individual
such
type
why
questions
a large following at a certain period. More
ideology attracts
as Ellen Wood
has pointed out, the consideration
specifically,
as
of a
the symptomatic outpourings
of Rousseau's
writings
"to
the
confront
from
need
Talmon
frees
paranoiac
as a serious social criticism."34
Rousseau's
political thought
the quasi-psychoanalytic
that
Talmon
layer of
acknowledges
or
He
a
serves
his text
juxtaposes
political purpose.
polemical
Saint
informed portraits of Rousseau,
his psychoanalytically
as the
with what he describes
Babeuf
and
Just, Robespierre
to human affairs, which he attributes
*'pencil-sketch" approach
to a doctrinaire mentality "completely unaware of the problem
in leadership and oblivious of the
element
of the personal
in the working of
human
of the actual
personality
place
lines of pencil
the
fine
to
Talmon,
According
politics."
the
are
of
irrational,
sketches
capturing
incapable

to Totalitarian

From Rousseau

Democracy

elements of human nature. They neglect "the

unpredictable
flesh of the intangible,
living forces, traditions,
shapeless
human
inertia
and
habits,
lazy conservatism."35
imponderables,
the pencil-sketch mentality
in its blindness
As he explains,
to pencil
produces pencil-sketch doctrines which, in turn, lead
to
terror.
In
of
sketch revolutions
and,
finally,
regimes
not
to
tries
reach
the
of
contrast, Talmon's
history
only
depths
colorful portraits of his villains, it
human nature by paindng
also

carries

strong

statement

about

the

role

of

unconscious,

the consequences
of
impulses in history and about
our
to
forces
them.
By
bringing
psychological
ignoring
attention and making us aware of the limits of human nature,
the ambitious
task of writing
he undertakes
therapeutic
to achieve a kind of preventive psychological
history, designed
treatment, immunizing us against the totalitarian temptation to
which all of us are constantly exposed. Talmon's
self-image as
a
on
statement
in
the
is made
explicit
lay psychoanalyst
which
in
the
of
the
task
historian,
appears
therapeutic
at
to
it
it
of
is
worthwhile
quote
Origins',
chapter
concluding
length:
hidden

to
The power of the historian or political philosopher
influence events is no doubt strictly limited, but he can
towards
influence the attitude of mind which is adopted
Like a psychoanalyst who cures by
those developments.
the social
making the patient aware of his sub-conscious,
to
be
able
attack
the
human
urge which
analyst may
calls

totalitarian

democracy

into

existence,

namely

the

and
longing for a final resolution of all contradictions
conflicts into a state of social harmony. It is a harsh, but
none
task to drive home
the less necessary
the truth
life can never reach a
that human society and human
state

Comedy,

of

repose.36

Romance

and Tragedy

All perfectionist plans of harmony and freedom are doomed,

in his eyes, "the very idea of a self
says Talmon; moreover,
contained
have
system from which all evil and unhappiness

71

Jose Brunner

exorcised
is totalitarian."3' Thus he writes history not
as
and psychoanalysis, but also as a moral
only
metaphysics
tale where attempts to create a society free of evil are not only
bound to fail, but are punished by the dialectic of history that
turns the people
evil into its terrible
who
try to abolish
curse of humanity.
transforms
and
into
the
Utopias
harbingers
tend to do, Talmon
As moral preachers
tries to bring his
a
home
historical
message
by painting
picture in strong and
some
to my mind
crude colors and shapes. Nevertheless,
been

72

seem to admire his flamboyant rhetoric; Arieli, for instance,

describes Talmon's
writings as 44a historical literary creation in
in convincing
4'abundant
the fullest sense,"
imaginative
and
marked
44a
sensitive and disciplined
rich,
by
descriptions"
a remarkable
indicating
literary gift."38 Whatever
language
or
not
found
in Talmon's
merits
be
may
may
literary
writings,
to their
contributed
much
their dramatic
style undoubtedly
for
moral
forms
the
vehicle
their
and
message.
appeal
in reading
What kind of drama, however, do we encounter
of
famous
taxonomy
Northrop
Frye's
Adopting
Origins?
structures
for
of
the
of
the
analysis
history,
writing
literary plot
in which
four basic modes
White
distinguishes
Hayden
historical narratives are presented:
romance,
tragedy, comedy
to Talmon
that is,
this scheme
and
satire.39 Applying
seems
as
a
fair to
it
form of literature
considering his work
in
cast
the
his drama of good and evil
say that he
tragic
are
festive moments
In tragedy laughs are hollow,
mode.
a
and
of
consciousness
at
is
there
best
sobering
illusionary;
not necessarily
resignation. But confrontation with evil does
have to be tragic.
Charlotte Spivack points to the 44unholy alliance of hell and
in the arts and letters of medieval Christianity, which
humor"
for a comedy of evils. In medieval
allowed
mystery plays,
to look grotesque
was made
and
paintings and gargoyles, evil
and laughed at. To be sure, laughing at evil
could be mocked
the triumph
did not mean
taking it lightly. Rather, itmarked
and
its
fundamental
of
of recognition
absurdity,
nothingness
which could not
its temptations, illusions and masquerades,
hide its impotence when confronted with the substantiality of
from a different literary genre
the good.40 As this example

From Rousseau

to Totalitarian

Democracy

shows, in comedy there is hope. Hayden White comments that

there are
though there are no great victories in comedy,
small
and
liberations
releases.41
temporary reconciliations,
in Talmon
Yet it is not so much
comedy that the moralist
historical self-emplotment as
abhors as the French Revolution's

romance, where good is said to win a decisive victory over evil,

its proud
virtue proclaims
where
triumph over vice and
human beings pretend to possess the power to transcend their
the radical Enlightenment's
imprisonment by the Fall.42 To
Talmon
and
self-confidence
opposes
pessimism
opdmistic
a
ideal
and
visions
he
caudous
doubt, against
pits
plans
grand
method
of trial and error. Thus his narrative expresses what
Judith Shklar has called "a philosophy of negation."43
was by no means
in restyling
alone
By the 1950s Talmon
comic or romantic visions of history into tragedy. Rather, he
to a large and prominent group of thinkers and
belonged
them George
writers on the Left and the Right - among

Adorno,
Aron,
Orwell, Theodor
Jean-Paul Sartre, Raymond
Hannah Arendt and Karl Popper - who in the middle of the
to their life experiences
twentieth century reacted
during
World War II and earlier decades by searching for the origins
of totalitarianism. They had lost their confidence and laughter,
since in the shadow of Auschwitz and the Gulag
they had
come

to

see

evil

as

real

and

substantive.

a detailed
I have provided
of this
exposition
me
state
moral
let
vision.44
Here
for
that
just
generation's
became
with
them the notion of "totalitarianism"
synonymous
the idea of a radically evil society, where
suffering is
Elsewhere

systematically and cruelly imposed on its members.

Though
that such radical evil be fought
they categorically demanded
in the name of liberty, these thinkers also claimed
that
victories against it were temporary and precarious
and that it
was impossible to rid society of absolutely all evil. From the
on
the Left to conservative
Frankfurt School
liberals like
Friedrich Hayek on the Right, they all opposed
and criticized
rationalist Utopias that promised to revamp society totally.
to Serfdom that the growth of
in The Road
argued
Hayek
commerce
and science and the disappearance
of medieval
hierarchies

had

equipped

modern

men

and

women

with

73

Jose Brunner
sense of power and a mistaken "belief in the unbounded
own lot," and, he says, "[w]ith
possibilities of improving their
the success grew ambition."45 Growing
impatience with slow
new

led in the nineteenth

brought by liberal policies
to
that
the
idea
could be
century
piecemeal
improvements
in
deliberate
which
accelerated
the
by
planning
existing social
order would be completely scrapped and replaced. However,
as Hayek
claims throughout his book, democratic
socialism is
since
planning brings dictatorship.
impossible,
is no
To
be
evidence
that Hayek's
book
sure, there
influenced the writing of Origins - which came out eight years
the dialectics
later - even
it portrays do
show
though
advances

74

notes
of
picture. The
significant affinities with Talmon's
a
to
do
contain
Talmon's
Karl
reference
book, however,
The Open Society and Its Enemies, published
in London
Popper's
in 1945.46 Popper,
social
too, juxtaposes piecemeal
engineering
with Utopian but doomed
attempts to realize an ideal society.
to "close"
the motivation
For Popper,
society is anxiety rather
than hubris. In his view the appeal of totalitarianism derives
and
the flux, insecurity, pluralism
from the strain which
abstract social relations of the "open"
society impose on
a
a seemingly
Totalitarianism
expresses
longing for
people.
solutions characteristic of
safe and cozy collective with magical
Rather
than a push forward towards
childhood.
humanity's
an
in totalitarianism
he
finds
total change
and
novelty,
to arrest

attempt
beautiful
But

social

since

such

all
order

change
so as

dreams

of

to

and
to

regain

perfection

re-create
a

tribal

cannot

an

innocent

paradise
come
true,

and
lost.47
their

or later lead to attempts to realize them

blueprints will sooner
means
and
violent
they will end up increasing suffering
by
the only reasonable method
rather than reducing it. Therefore
ideal
to improve society, Popper
suggests, is not to pursue
as

for the greatest

greatest
happiness
towards "the least amount of avoidable
that this can be done
argues
only
suffering for all."48 He
on a trial-and-error
undertaken
small
adjustments
through
is far
basis, which accepts "that perfection, if at all attainable,
...
will
he explains, 44[t]he piecemeal
distant." Hence,
engineer
of searching for, and fighting against, the
adopt the method
aims

such

number,"

but

"the
to work

From Rousseau

to Totalitarian

Democracy

greatest and most urgent evils of society, rather than searching

for, and fighting for, its greatest ultimate good."49
in claiming
and Hayek
that
follows both Popper
Talmon
and overly ambidous
radonalist Utopias are not only misguided
in their neglect of the complexities of social life that make
and inhuman
total planning
impossible, but also dangerous
turn
and demand
obedient
since they inevitably
oppressive
also agrees with them that the attempt to
conformity.50 He
eradicate evil in order to create the good society breeds evil
role
and that reason can only play a modest and "negative"
to
in human
affairs, fighting evil without ever being able
the Talmonian
notion of
it completely. However,
totalitarian democracy, which conjoins into one concept what,
is an impossible
at least prima facie, seem to be opposites,
a Popperian
than mass
point of view. Rather
hybrid from
takes
participation and ideals of freedom and equality, Popper
the pluralist, critical and rational discussion of open societies
to it the organicist
as the criterion of democracy and opposes
eliminate

monism

of

closed

societies.51

should add, however, that the notion of totalitarian

influence on the
democracy as a term to describe Rousseau's
French Revolution - though not its systematic exploration and
book. In his classic The Modern
precedes Talmon's
exposition
in London
in 1943, at the time
Democratic State - published
- A.
in Cambridge
when Talmon was completing his doctorate
the
that Rousseau's
D. Lindsay claimed
way of representing
as selfish had sinister consequences
of
the
minority
opposition
One

and

that

his

"general

influence

was

towards

totalitarian

democracy."52Already in 1938 Aurel Kolnai had stated that the

seeds of totalitarianism could be found in the evolution of
General
modern
democracy, and had singled out Rousseau's
Will as a concept which played a particularly significant role
in this respect.53 In 1946 Bertrand Russell's vulgar but widely
Rousseau
read A History of Western Philosophy proclaimed
of
"inventor of the political
pseudo-democratic
philosophy
to Russell,
Rousseau's
influence
According
dictatorships."
of his
resulted from the emotional
appeal
turned it into a "social force." Thus Rousseau
then to the dictatorships
and
Robespierre

thought, which
had led first to
in Russia
and

75

Jose

Brunner

Germany;

Russell

even declared

Hider

to be

4'an outcome

of

Rousseau."54

obvious similarides and parallels between Talmon's

Despite
and these comments, Talmon's
analysis also differs
approach
from them significantly in that it clearly separates right-wing
to
from left-wing totalitarianism and never relates Rousseau
to
In the introducdon
the origins of fascism or Nazism.

76

that only the

explains
Origins, Talmon
since it
Left can be called democratic,
social harmony and "remains essentially
it raises the
and rationalist even when

totalitarianism

of

the

aims at
atomistic
individualist,
class or party to the

is universalist,

level of absolute ends." Totalitarianism

of the Right, however,
as
human
and
corrupt
unruly and hence
beings
regards
the necessity of force as a permanent
"teaches
way of
It
racial
is
order."
around
particularist, organized
maintaining
on
and
based
whose
and organic
message
concepts,
myths
runs counter to individualism, rationalism and universalism.55
further
this
Talmon
explores
universalism-particularism
in later books, where he writes of the complex
dichotomy
antithetical relationship between socialism and nationalism.56 In
Origins, however, he still is exclusively concerned with the way
in which a Messianic,
revolutionary and totalitarian faith could
be driven by the same stock of ideals that gave life to liberal
democracy.

Hubris

and Humility

fascination with Rousseau,

analysis, Talmon's
other totalitarian prophets
and
Babeuf
Saintjust, Robespierre,
and
and high priests, carries him beyond metaphysics
lay
of
to
activists
and
the
He
is
architects
opposed
psychoanalysis.
not
and
the French Revolution
the radical Enlightenment
they turn politics into a religion, but because
simply because
as
of a faith lacking
act
false, self-proclaimed Messiahs
they
the
that basic virtue of religious traditions: humility. Adopting
authorial persona of the moral preacher, he explains the wide
on "this
as based
Revolution
ranging aims of the French
man
is
frail
that
hubris and
human
impious presumption
and
final
a
absolute
scheme
of
of
of
things
producing
capable
In

the final

From Rousseau

to Totalitarian

Democracy

the ancient and deeply rooted myth

significance."07 Applying
to the French Revolution
and
of the hubris-nemesis
sequence
its regime of terror, he claims that the attempt to push society
too far in one direction will end up moving
it in the opposite
direction. Thus he uses a vocabulary which Albert Hirschman
has

categorized
that
perversity,"
revolutions

the

exact

"produce,

as

of
"rhetoric
part of the reactionary
to demonstrate
that
is, a rhetoric aiming

contrary of

via

chain

of

the objective

unintended

being

consequences,

proclaimed

and

pursued."58

for Talmon
the metaphor
of the false Messiah
However,
than that of Greek
hubris. Whatever
carries more weight
rhetoric he may use, he invokes it as a preacher defending
monotheist
values
traditional Western,
the secular
against
turn
in
which
activists
and
revolutionary religion
philosophers
themselves into gods. For this reason he depicts the French
not as an uprising
and a
Revolution
against oppression
a
as
not
for
status,
order,
power and
corrupt political
struggle
as sin. In this layer, his text is a writ of
but
influence,
political
indictment, a description of the slow process in which a crime
in the attempt to create a
is conceived, planned and executed
to
to the
and
harmonious
remake
society
humanity according
virtues. The Revolution
ideal of republican
is a crime for
a
the core of his historiography
Talmon
because
conceals
a traditional
commitment
its
of
where
own,
quasi-religious
Judeo-Christian outlook provides the basis on which the other

layers of his textual edifice rest.

After all that has been said, Origins might seem to be all
villains and no heroes - and yet, even though his presence
remains almost unstated, a hero hides in the margins of the
text. Edmund Burke is given the last word in the section of
with the Jacobin dictatorship, and in his notes
Origins dealing
Talmon
writes that "the empiric Anglo-Saxon
is
approach"

by Burke."59 Moreover, Talmon's

"exemplified
historiography
in many ways the oudook,
mirrors
rhetoric and values of
than anybody
Burke's diatribes against the Revolution. More
into
else, Burke had incorporated the philosophes and Rousseau
the debate on the French Revolution;
and more than with any
other political philosopher,
the notion
that radical political

77

Jose Brunner

change
Irish-born

is presumptuous

and

impossible

is associated

with

the

conservative.

before Talmon,
in a discussion
of
the
on the French
influence of Rousseau
Burke
revolutionaries,
the latter of totally abandoning
had accused
"true humility,
Two

centuries

the basis of the Christian

78

the
system" which, in his words,"is
low, but deep and firm foundation of all real virtue." They
aimed, he said "to merge all natural and all social sentiment
in inordinate vanity."W) Since Rousseau was the "professor and
to
of vanity," they had chosen
founder of the philosophy
*
Socrates of
follow his teachings and celebrated
this insane
the first statue of the
the National
by erecting
Assembly"
in
his
the French
honor.61
revolutionary Republic
Picturing
thinkers as an 4'infamous gang" of atheist conspirators, who
deliberately plotted against throne and altar and destroyed the
traditional bonds holding
society together, Burke held their
for all revolutionary excesses.62
4'ethics of vanity" responsible
In his words, "[t]he
cabal
had some years ago formed
literary
a
like
of the
for
the destruction
something
regular plan

Christian

religion."M

Burke claimed that the makers

the sin of pride since they had
human existence were amenable
wanted

society

to

conform

to

of the Revolution had sinned

the belief that the world and
to the force of reason and

their

theories.64

"There

is,*'

he

of things
4'by the essential fundamental Constitution
objected,
a radical
in
all
Instead
human
of
contrivances."65
infirmity
them
have
of
which
should
the
lessons
taught
history
heeding
and
radical
human
philosophers
politicians
imperfection,
to society. Thus
science
they ignored not only the
applied
limits of change but also the apparently "irrational"
aspects of
custom and
such as prejudice,
human
tradition,
behavior,
which had allowed the states of the Christian world to flourish
after
without any blueprints of an ideal society. Like Talmon
and
the commitment
of French
condemned
him, Burke

British radicals to the idea of the perfectibility of humanity,

the abolition
of ancient privileges and
since it legitimized
them
other distinctions among human beings, thus reducing
atoms.
abstract
to a mass
of undifferentiated
Against
the
what he called
and science, Burke opposed
philosophy

to Totalitarian

From Rousseau

Democracy

of a people which had grown through the ages, and

for pursuing "the greatest variety of ends" and
Britain
praised
for "taking the enure circle of human desires, and securing
Burke
viewed
the
for them fair enjoyment."66 Ultimately,
as a war for the survival of
the
Jacobins
against
struggle
it was
society; hence
religion and the fabric of European
"spirit''

impossible
it, war

to make

peace

with revolutionary France. As he put

of

"is

France,

revolutionary

against

war

between

the

the ancient civil, moral,

and political order of
partisans
a
sect
and
of
fanatical
ambitious
atheists which
Europe against
means

to

change

them

all."67

Thus we find already in Burke all the basic characteristics of

Talmon's
discourse: a metaphysical
of the French
explanation
as an event caused by ideas rather than social or
Revolution
economic factors, an attack on Rousseau
and the philosophes as
are
condemned
for their lack of
who
the main
culprits
on
a
human
emphasis
humility;
psychological
imperfectibility
in which
and irrationality; and, finally, a moralistic dichotomy
in traditional practices of humanity is
the wisdom accumulated
to what
is seen as the self-defeating vanity of
opposed
rationalism.

to their book on Burke's political theory,

In the conclusion
Paul Hindson
and Tim Gray state that Burke's dramatic style
aimed not only to show that politics often was dramatic, but
above

all

to

"how

demonstrate

and

dramatic

truths about

awareness

the nature

yielded

of politics
insights, perceptions,
same
which would otherwise have remained obscure."68 The
to
in his foreword
could
be
said about Talmon,
who
Romanticism and Revolt criticizes the turn to sociology and
statistics in the writing of history and states that "it is time for
a corrective in the direction of human drama."69 Moreover,
it divides the
Talmon's
historical drama is as blunt as Burke's;
world
into irreconcilable
friend to foe,
antinomies,
opposes
to evil. By presenting
hero to villain, and good
its subject
matter in such stark colors Talmon's
perspective remains blind
to gradations or nuances. His history knows no middle ground
and none of philosophy's
famous grey on grey, which Hegel
in the introduction to the Philosophy ofRight Fearful
mentions
of the religion of revolution, expressing a view of the world at

79

Jose

Brunner

a
dramatic plot ends up
evil, Talmon's
against
dangerous
a
no
vision
that
historical
is
less all-encompassing,
creating
and
dichotomous
than
the
simplifying,
uncompromising

war

political

80

faith he attacks.

to Totalitarian

From Rousseau

Democracy

Notes
than a decade
1 More
ago Leah Rosen made me aware of
of Talmon's
the problems
historiography and of ways of
it.
with
Lisa
Amiel and Yoav Peled, she
Together
criticizing
also commented on an earlier, shorter version of this paper,

of
which I presented at the Thirteenth Annual Conference
the Historical Society of Israel, Jerusalem, July 1989. Omer
on the
Bartov and Janette Yael Zupnik have commented
draft of the present, extended version. I am grateful to all
of

them.

The Myth of theNation and the Vision of the

2 J. L. Talmon,
Revolution (London,
1981), 535.
in F.
3 Quoted
Furet,
Interpreting the French Revolution
(Cambridge, 1981), 86.
4 J. Dunn, Modem Revolutions: An Introduction to theAnalysis of
a Political Phenomenon (Cambridge, 1972), 1.
5

For

some

see

Furet,

recent

summaries

of
the

Interpreting

the

French

points

of

view
T.

Revolution',

involved,
C.

W.

The French Revolution: Aristocrats versus Bourgeois?

Blanning,
1987); G. C. Comninel,
(Basingstoke,
Rethinking the French
Revolution: Marxism
and the Revisionist Challenge
(London,
1987) ; W. Doyle, Origins of the French Revolution
(Oxford,
1988) , 7-40; F. Feher, ed., The French Revolution and theBirth
ofModernity (Berkeley, 1990).
6 Furet, Interpreting theFrench Revolution, 87.
7

See,

for

Revolution
et Marx,"

Years

instance,

J.

(London,
in R.

A.

McDonald,

Rousseau

and

1965),

17-18; J.-L. Leclercle,

Leigh,

ed.,

Rousseau

after

Two

the French

"Rousseau
Hundred

and the
1982), 76; C. Blum, Rousseau
(Cambridge,
"The
Republic of Virtue (Ithaca, 1986), 32-33; E. M. Wood,
State and Popular Sovereignty in French Political Thought:
A Genealogy
of Rousseau's
General Will," History of Political

81

Jose

82

Brunner

Thought 4 (1983): 281, 307; T. W. Luke, "On Nature and

versus the Enlightenment,"
ibid. 5 (1984):
Society: Rousseau
"Totalitarian
the
of
and
214; Dunn,
Democracy
Legacy
or
Modern
Revolutions
in
Indictment?"
Explanation
Totalitarian Democracy and After (Jerusalem, 1984), 38-40.
oeuvre
I
8 The only comprehensive
of Talmon's
exposition
- An
come
across
is Y. Arieli,
have
Talmon
"Jacob
in Totalitarian Democracy and After, 1
Intellectual Portrait,"
I am indebted to Arieli's highly perceptive and
34. Though
instructive comments, my own approach
sharply
diverges
tenor of his essay, which originally was
from the eulogizing

at an
address
international
opening
of
Talmon.
The
theoretical
memory
colloquium
can be
relies
framework on which my discussion
loosely
to Hayden White's Metahistory:
found in the introduction
in Nineteenth-Century Europe
The Historical
Imagination
1-42.
(Baltimore, 1973),
as author
to Talmon
this paper,
references
9 Throughout
relate to him solely as the figure to whom his text points. I
as an individual. See
make no claims about Jacob Talmon
in his Language, Counter
M. Foucault, "What is an Author?"
(Ithaca, 1977), 113-38.
Memory, Practice, ed. D. F. Bouchard
Totalitarian
The
10 Talmon,
Democracy
of
Origins
presented

as

the

in

1986), 1-2.
(Harmondsworth,
11 Ibid., 6.
within
all emphases
this paper,
11. (Throughout
12 Ibid.,
are mine.)
quotations
13 Ibid., 13.
The Romantic Phase
Political Messianism,
14 Talmon,
(London,
1960), 17.
15 Talmon, Myth of theNation, 536.

16 Origins, 70.
17 Ibid., 12. See White, Metahistory, 15-16.
18 Origins, 80.
19 Ibid., 200; see also 231.
17.
20 Arieli, "Jacob Talmon,"
21 G. W. F. Hegel, Phenomenology ofMind
1966).
(London,
22 C. Taylor, Hegel (Cambridge,
1975), 185-88, 403-18.
23 Origins, 84; see also 2-3, 98-99, 102, 104.

From Rousseau

to Totalitarian

Democracy

in History: A General Introduction to the

Reason
24 Hegel,
Philosophy ofHistory (New York, 1978).
25 Origins, 253.
26 Ibid., 3.
27 Talmon, Myth of theNation, 535; see also Origins, 133.
28 J. N.
Shklar, After Utopia: The Decline
of Political Faith

(Princeton, 1969), 237.

29 Origins, 38-39.
30 Ibid., 43.
31 Ibid.; on Robespierre,
81; Saint-Just, 81-83; Babeuf, 172.
32 Ibid., 39-40.
Clio and the Doctors: Psycho
33 See, for instance, J. Barzun,
and
1974); D. E.
History (Chicago,
History, Quanto-History
Freud
On
and
the
Failure
Stannard,
Shrinking History:
of
R.
C.
"The
Tucker,
Psychohistory (Oxford, 1980);
Georges'
on
An
Reexamined:
Wilson
Essay
Psychobiography,"
American Political Science Review 71 (1977):
606-18; T. H.
with
The
Sane
Anderson,
Psychohistory,''
"Becoming

Historian 41 (1978): 1-20.

"The State and Popular Sovereignty," 281, n. 1.
34 Wood,
35 Origins, 136.
36 Ibid., 254-55.
37 Ibid., 35.
38 Arieli, "Jacob Talmon,"
28.
39 White, Metahistory, 7-11; N. Frye, The Anatomy of Criticism:
Four Essays (Princeton, 1957).
on Shakespeare s Stage
The Comedy of Evil
40 C.
Spivack,
and
26-51.
London,
1978),
(Cranbury
41 White, Metahistory, 9.
42 Ibid.
43 Shklar, After Utopia, 221.
on Political
44 J. Brunner,
"Comments
Evil,"
Theory and

Critique: An Israeli Forum (in Hebrew)

(forthcoming 1991);
a Political Economy of Evils,"
"Toward
Philosophical Forum
(forthcoming 1992).
45 F. A. Hayek, The Road to Serfdom (Chicago, 1944), 17.
46 Origins, 258.
47 K. R. Popper,
The Open Society and Its Enemies, 5th ed.
(Princeton, 1966), 1:165, 200.

83

Jose

Brunner

48
49

Ibid., 285.
Ibid., 158.

50 See also
Defended

After Utopia, 218-69; B. Godwin,

"Utopia
the Liberals,"
Political Studies 23 (1980):
Against

Shklar,

384-400.
standard
51 For another
of democracy
with
juxtaposition
totalitarianism - in terms of one-party vs. multi-party systems
-

84

which

represents

them

as

mutually

exclusive,

see

R.

Aron,

Democratic et Totalitarisme (Paris, 1965). In contrast to Aron

construes
the totalitarianism-liberty
and Popper,
Hayek
a free
as
one
in
economic
terms,
dichotomy
separating

that
from centralized
His
contention
planning.
has often been much more
cultural and spiritual
an
some
under
autocratic
than under
rule
freedom
seem
to allow for the possibility of
democracies"
does

market
"there

in
totalitarian democracy,
though no such concept appears
his writings. Hayek, The Road to Serfdom, 70.
52 A. D. Lindsay, The Modern Democratic State (London,
1943),
14.

53 A. Kolnai,

The War Against

theWest

(New York,

1938),

162

63.

Russell, A History of Western Philosophy (1946; London,

1985), 660, 674.
55 Origins, 6-7.
and
the
Brotherhood
National
"The
56 See
Talmon,
in
and
Nationalism
International
Socialism,"
Confraternity.
The Unique and the Universal: Some Historical Reflections (New
York, 1965), 11-63; Romanticism and Revolt
Europe 1814
1848 (New York, 1967); The Myth of the Nation. See also
54 B.

20-24.
Arieli, "Jacob Talmon,"
usual parting
that Talmon's
57 Origins, 27. Arieli comments
the classroom were "preach well"
words before entering
the
for Talmon
and that "teaching and lecturing possessed
3.
dignity of the pulpit." Arieli, "Jacob Talmon,"
The Rhetoiic of Reaction: Perversity, Futility,
58 A. O. Hirschman,
1991), 11, 35.
feopardy (Cambridge, Mass.,
to
59 Origins, 283. Some might consider Alexis de Toqueville
the
borrows
Talmon
a
role.
the
hero
for
be
candidate
in America and credits
epigraph for Origins from Democracy

From Rousseau

de Toqueville
of

totalitarian

to Totalitarian

with "the keenest perception

democracy.

On

the

whole,

Democracy

of the current"
however,

Talmon

own
to Burke than to de Toqueville.
For Talmon's
with de
and disagreements
of his agreements
see Origins, 257.
See
also Arieli,
"Jacob
Toqueville,
is closer
account

Talmon,"

7-9.

of the National Assembly,"

60 E. Burke, "Letter to a Member
in The Philosophy ofEdmund Burke: A Selection from his Speeches
and Writings, ed. L. I. Bredvold and R. G. Ross (Ann Arbor,
1960), 248.
Ibid.

61
62 Ibid., 254, 249.
63 Burke, Reflections on theRevolution in France (Harmondsworth,
1968), 211.
The French Revolution and Enlightenment in England,
64 S. Deane,
1189-1832
(Cambridge, Mass., 1988), 9.
in P. Hindson
and T. Gray, Burkes Dramatic
65 Burke, quoted
Politics
178.
(Aldershot,
1988),
Theory of
in The
Letter on a Regicide
"Second
66 Burke,
Peace,"
Edmund
241-42.
Burke,
of
Philosophy
67 Ibid., 240.
68 Hindson
and Gray, Burkes Dramatic Theory, 180; for Burke's
see P. Fussell,
The Rhetorical World of
literary sources,
Augustan Humanism: Ethics and Imagery from Sxvift to Burke
(Oxford,
69

Talmon,

1965).
Romanticism

and

Revolt,

8.

85