Tea at Trianon: 1968

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Sunday, April 27, 2008

1968

Terry Nelson discusses the year of Revolution.

In 1968 both Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy were assassinated. Race riots broke out in cities across the country, while anti-war protests increased, and Women’s liberation groups were organizing and coming to power. I also think 1968 was a defining moment for the sexual revolution we now take for granted. I’ll be posting on 1968 at this blog and my other blogs once in awhile - it is amazing how much happened in that year, how we have changed, and yet how much we have remained the same.Did you know 1968 is the year Virginia Slims was introduced - a cigarette that celebrated the modern woman with the phrase, “You’ve come a long way, baby!”? It was also the year the pantsuit came out for women. In fact, Nan Kempner, a NY socialite was not permitted to enter a posh restaurant in NYC because she was wearing an evening pantsuit. Undaunted, she removed the trousers and entered the restaurant wearing the elongated coat as a dress. The rules quickly changed after that.