Article: John Mitchel and the rejection of the nineteenth century.

IN response to a friend who accused him of not believing in the future of humanity, the Young Irelander John Mitchel retorted that, on the contrary, he did believe that humanity had a future but that "its future will be very much like its past: that is, pretty mean." (1) Such gloominess typified Mitchel's outlook: He was unimpressed by the rapid industrial progress of the nineteenth century, its advances in science and technology, and its long periods of peace. He dismissed the widely held belief that his century represented the pinnacle of human achievement, and found absurd "this triumphant glorification of a current century upon being the century it is. No former age, ...






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