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Search - Bolivar - The Life Of An Idealist

Bolivar The Life Of An Idealist
Author: Emil Ludwig

Text extracted from opening pages of book: BOLIVAR THE LIFE OF AN IDEALIST BY EMIL LUDWIG ALLIANCE BOOK CORPORATION . NEW YORK To FRITZ VON UNRUH Foreword To ITS heroes a nation erects statues of bronze; if the hero is a great soldier he rides on a high pedestal above the public square. But the nation wants to know also the psychology of its her... more »o, which of course no monument can represent; everyone will take him as an example and will compare himself to the hero. After a century, when the echo of his deeds begin to fade, when the liberty he has conquered for the nation is safe from all danger, when the enemy of old times has become an old friend, then the human motives which guided the hero appear much stronger behind the battles and the constitutions. For human characters always renew themselves; and their passions, their joys and griefs bring stronger enlightening to posterity than the tale of events gone long since. Several times Bolivar has been so imperiously represented by his compatriots and scholars that his country expects nothing new from a foreigner. But, like the stranger who, for the first time, enters the family circle, he can perhaps examine this figure with a new and unprejudiced glance, and because of the fact that he is not interested in political peculiarities he may produce the very essence of the human being. This is what moves the writer and foreign nations more deeply than campaigns and congresses the names of which are nearly unknown outside of South America. How little known seems to be this tragic character! That is the reason why this book tells little about battles, just as the book about Napoleon by the same author does not. Youth which grows up amongst tanks and murderous weapons can consider Tii viii FOREWORD the astonishing passage of the Andes on the back of a mule only as a romantic engraving! What then is it that attaches our time to the radiant profile of Bolivar? This lightminded son of a millionaire whose eyes were opened by a stranger to the beauty of his country; this young enthusiastic adherent of dance and of game in whom the aspect of Napoleon evokes the love for glory; this skeptic who transforms himself into an idealist after an inner struggle which makes him lose his best friend; this ardent dilletante, this the orist in revolution who over night finds himself a great captain and deliverer . * . then, like the condor, he spreads his enor mous wings, glides over the mountains which form the borders of his country, and plunging into the neighboring countries lie proclaims and spreads liberty everywhere, to turn homeward only after having chased the last of his enemies. But, during this time, behind his back, envy, discord and jealousy have grown in the heart of his people; before the eyes of the hero who grows old prematurely they destroy his work. The victorious rise of a man between his thirtieth and fortieth year is followed, as in Antiquity, by the tragedy that pursues him to the day of his death. When before our eyes the tragic fate of this real romantic hero who loved glory more than anything else has unfolded, our hearts are touched, our minds excited. But such a work as his could not spare his compatriots any more than his own weaknesses, especially since by triumphing over these weaknesses he rose to his great destiny, In his meetings with Napoleon, Miranda, San Martin and Manuela, his mistress we observe the decisive turning points of his life. Proceeding from there, certain problems which are now exist ing have been treated: the antagonism between dictatorship and democracy which left him no peace during his whole life; the moral force with which he always pursued the praise of posterity more than the easy triumph of the dictator; the discernment of his idea of a League of Nations; his struggle for unity and against the discord of political parties. All these subjects belong in our time and to which Bolivar can serve as an example* FOREWORD ix But as I see it the principal

ISBN-13: 9781406755459
ISBN-10: 1406755451
Publication Date: 3/15/2007
Pages: 372
Rating:

0 stars, based on 0 rating

Publisher: Ludwig Press
Book Type: Paperback
Other Versions: Hardcover
Members Wishing: 0
Reviews: Amazon | Write a Review

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