
Phantom Terror
Political Paranoia and the Creation of the Modern State, 1789 - 1848
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
3 months free
Buy for $25.76
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Gildart Jackson
-
By:
-
Adam Zamoyski
For the ruling and propertied classes of the late eighteenth century, the years following the French Revolution were characterized by intense anxiety. Monarchs and their courtiers lived in constant fear of rebellion, convinced that their power--and their heads--were at risk. Driven by paranoia, they chose to fight back against every threat and insurgency, whether real or merely perceived, repressing their populaces through surveillance networks and violent, secretive police action. Europe and the world had entered a new era.
In Phantom Terror, award-winning historian Adam Zamoyski argues that the stringent measures designed to prevent unrest had disastrous and far-reaching consequences, inciting the very rebellions they had hoped to quash. The newly established culture of state control halted economic development in Austria and birthed a rebellious youth culture in Russia that would require even harsher methods to suppress. By the end of the era, the first stirrings of terrorist movements had become evident across the continent, making the previously unfounded fears of European monarchs a reality.
Phantom Terror explores this troubled, fascinating period, when politicians and cultural leaders from Edmund Burke to Mary Shelley were forced to choose sides and either support or resist the counterrevolutionary spirit embodied in the newly omnipotent central states. The turbulent political situation that coalesced during this era would lead directly to the revolutions of 1848 and to the collapse of order in World War I. We still live with the legacy of this era of paranoia, which prefigured not only the modern totalitarian state but also the now preeminent contest between society's haves and have-nots.
These tempestuous years of suspicion and suppression were the crux upon which the rest of European history would turn. In this magisterial history, Zamoyski chronicles the moment when desperate monarchs took the world down the path of revolution, terror, and world war.
©2015 Adam Zamoyski (P)2015 Blackstone Audio, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...




















People who viewed this also viewed...









Narration by Gildart Jackson is certainly a great service to the book itself and intensely stimulating to the brain!
The hearing sense is far more precise and nuanced than reading by eye can ever be.
Ear-popping package!
Amazing
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Excellent
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Terrific book, fantastic reading
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Here’s the “but”: The story gets buried in supporting details. The narrative is continually broken up by quotes. The effect is that it sounds like you are reading the footnotes. I had to slow down to 1x speed and still didn’t retain much, but it was definitely worth the effort. I can’t believe how much my history classes skipped. Thank you!
Meaty
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Rhyming History
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Gildart Jackson is excellent (despite mispronunciations of foreign words, though it should be said that he generally has a fair idea of how words in French and German sound; French names can indeed be difficult to get right unless one happens to know or does the research).
Highly recommended.
Most regrettably, this book appears to be unavailable to Canadian and European customers. I do not see whom this publishing restriction can benefit.
Wonderful book, exceeds all expectation
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.