The 'postliberalism' turning conservative heads globally owes more to Romantic than Enlightenment values. History tells us: be careful

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The image that gained instant fame after last Saturday’s attempt on the life of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump was captured by Associated Press photographer Evan Vucci. It shows a defiant Trump, fist raised, blood running down his cheek and an American flag flying overhead. Could there be a stronger image of a patriot fighting for America?

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Vucci’s picture brought to mind another image, this one painted by Eugène Delacroix, that for almost two centuries has symbolized revolutionary France in pursuit of liberty, equality and fraternity. Commemorating the forced abdication of King Charles X in the July Revolution of 1830, Delacroix’ “Liberty leading the people” shows a beautiful loose-bodiced women holding the French tricolore aloft in her right hand and a bayoneted rifle in her left. It is passionate in its nationalism while depicting the conflict between the king’s supporters and the common folk.

In a brilliant four-part television series produced and aired by PBS in 2020, English historian Simon Schama used Delacroix’s painting as a symbol of the shift from the Enlightenment of the 17th and 18th centuries to the Romantic period. The Enlightenment stressed the use of reason and rationality to understand both the universe and one’s personal circumstances. In contrast, the Romantic period, which dominated in the mid-19th century, emphasized passion, imagination and nature. Romanticism championed radical politics and spontaneity in contrast to........

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