Matthijs Lok, Assistant Professor of Modern European History at the University of Amsterdam and current Fellow, will hold a seminar on the emergence of cosmopolitan forms of conservatism in the period 1780-1840.
Cosmopolitanism has usually been regarded by scholars as a progressive phenomenon, while conservatism has been equated with particularism. Most historians argue that the conservative and nationalist responses to the French Revolution and the Napoleonic wars marked the end of the cosmopolitanism of the Enlightened eighteenth century. Only after the horrors of the First World War was cosmopolitanism rediscovered in Europe, or so the traditional interpretation of the history of cosmopolitanism goes. The conceptual and historical connection between conservatism and trans- and internationalism has so far been ignored. Yet there are strong indications that alongside progressive forms of cosmopolitanism, in the (post-)Revolutionary era (ca. 1780-1840s) also counter-enlightened, counter-revolutionary and conservative forms of cosmopolitanism emerged that understood national and local events in a larger European, and even global, framework.
About NIAS Seminars
NIAS Seminars are aimed to stimulate scientific cross-pollination within the NIAS academic community and discuss work-in-progress. Attendance is online and by invitation. If you are interested in attending, please contact NIAS.