Victor Hugo in Europe's best & worst of times

As it is well known, Victor Hugo (1802-1885) authored Les Miserables and The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Hugo's childhood was spent in the historic period set in motion by the storming of the Bastille. As Hugo matured, his view changed from being a conservative to progressive. In Les Miserables, the character named Fantine, a loving but pitiable woman who became a prostitute, appeared in Heaven after she died. Les Miserables reflects the French writer's' nuanced understanding of the times and environment in which he grew up, thought and worked. Like Charles Dickens, Victor Hugo had never made any 'prediction' on the exact date and precise time of the end of the world in a 'Rapture'.

Painting & songs of France in great transition

The revolutionary and also counter-revolutionary upheavals in France, triggered off by the historic storming of the Bastille, 'lasted for many years. Liberty Leading The People was painted by ( Ferdinand Victor ) Eugene Delacroix ( 1798-'1863 ) to commemorate an uprising in 1830. Two still passion'-stirring songs were also composed at that period of earthly transformation, namely La Marseillaise and La Internationale. In 1790, 'British MP and writer Edmund Burke released Reflections on the Revolution in Franch to criticise the epoch-making revolt in 1789. German philosopher and political economist Karl Marx remarked that Burke was essentially '"a bourgeois stooge of the English ruling class".

French Revolution in Dickens' very great tale

The French Revolution in 1789 was used as the historical backgrounds for Charles Dickens' very famous novel, A Tale Of Two Cities. 2012 is the bicentennial anniversary of the birth of the great English novelist who also penned 'The Life Of Our Lord' for his kids' private education. Now, the once well-kept book is available publicly as one of the many fairly well-liked books in the modern English'-speaking world on earth.

Enlglish-language books on changes in Europe

The French Revolution in 1789 opened up a new chapter in the history of Europe. Why '? 'What were the cumulative causes of the upheaval '? what were the immediate triggers '? 'Who wanted it and who did not '? What were the intended or unintended consequences '? 'What were its impacts on other countries in Europe and the world ? David Thomson's Europe Since Napolean ( London, Penguine, 1966 ) offers some pretty powerful insights into the 'actions and reactions in the historic event. Professor Eric Hobsbawn's The Age of Revolution: 1789-1848 analyses the period of upheaval' in modern Europe from a Marxist perspective. Hobsbawn, 'who remarked at a recent BBC interview on the economic crisis that "'capitalism has nothing to do with responsibility'" and it is only concerned with growth and making profit, also authored The Age of Capital: 1848'-'1875 as well as The Age of Empire: 1875'-'1914. His new book is How To Change The World': Tales of Marx and Marixism. Modern people have to read more than one book to answer questions in life or solve problems to better themselves and'/'or their societies.

Europe's journey from antiquity to modernity

During the Middle Ages in Europe, the ruling and dominant ideas were derived from theology. However, with the rediscovery of philosophies as well as emergence of social sciences and humanities, people began to be more pluralistic in their methods of reasoning and able to probe their societies and the world at large '( both physical and social )' with more than one concern and perspective. Finally, the old idea that one cure'-all book could answer all questions and solve all problems ended. In a modern society, 'even scientists can be questioned or challenged, in rational and civil ways, for the betterment of the human condition, as no human being is divine or'/ and can claim the monopoly of truth.

Masters in scientific & technological progress

The development of science and technology without any nourishment of arts and culture could be detrimental to the society and its people. It is human beings who ought to master science and technology as to allow science and technology to lord over human beings is very scary. Intense affection or hatred for 'persons', whom one has never met in his'/'her real life, through the cyberspace is a contemporary example of people being subject to control by' tools of science and technology. Obssession with computer games or social media is another example. Any society which strives to find a balance for the development of its science and technology on one hand and arts and culture on the other would not displace sites of cultural heritage or'/'and approve projects which could endanger precious human lives in the name of ''progress''.