Hegel remarks somewhere[*] that all great world-historic facts and personages appear, so to speak, twice. He forgot to add: the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce. Caussidière for Danton, Louis Blanc for Robespierre, the Montagne of 1848 to 1851[66] for the Montagne of 1793 to 1795, the nephew for the uncle. And the same caricature occurs in the circumstances of the second edition of the Eighteenth Brumaire.
Men make their own history, but they do not make it as they please; they do not make it under self-selected circumstances, but under circumstances existing already, given and transmitted from the past. The tradition of all dead generations weighs like a nightmare on the brains of the living. And just as they seem to be occupied with revolutionizing themselves and things, creating something that did not exist before, precisely in such epochs of revolutionary crisis they anxiously conjure up the spirits of the past to their service, borrowing from them names, battle slogans, and costumes in order to present this new scene in world history in time-honored disguise and borrowed language. Thus Luther put on the mask of the Apostle Paul, the Revolution of 1789-1814 draped itself alternately in the guise of the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire, and the Revolution of 1848 knew nothing better to do than to parody, now 1789, now the revolutionary tradition of 1793-95. In like manner, the beginner who has learned a new language always translates it back into his mother tongue, but he assimilates the spirit of the new language and expresses himself freely in it only when he moves in it without recalling the old and when he forgets his native tongue.
The last part about learning a new language is a perfect analogy. New revolutions are plagued with ambivalence and uncertainty. In trying to assert itself as a new movement, it lacks the modes of expression and self-understanding to do so without reference to historical revolutionary moments.
In order to illuminate the physical realities that shaped the conduct of medieval warfare, this chapter traces out the military topography of fortifications, along with their associated infrastructure of roads, ports, and bridges, inherited by medieval Europe from the Roman Empire, and then discusses the multifaceted ways in which medieval polities sought to maintain, expand upon, renew, and ultimately transform this physical infrastructure to suit their needs.
It was not, however, only physical structures that the medieval world inherited from Rome, but also legal and administrative practices, practical engineering handbooks, and even patterns of military thinking. Consequently, we draw attention to the ongoing influence of Roman law and institutions, as well as technological expertise on the organization by medieval governments of the human, material, and financial resources that were necessary to construct and sustain their own military topographies.
It’s so good it deserves posting the full quote:
18th brumaire intro
The last part about learning a new language is a perfect analogy. New revolutions are plagued with ambivalence and uncertainty. In trying to assert itself as a new movement, it lacks the modes of expression and self-understanding to do so without reference to historical revolutionary moments.
(Source.)