Christopher O. Blum:
"A most surprising book... [Armenteros] writes some splendid pages that place Maistre's works in the context of such precursors and contemporaries as Madame de Staël, Nicolas-Sylvestre Bergier, and Jacques-Joseph Duguet. Equally impressive are her various discussions of the Russian context to Maistre's writing projects both great and small, especially those that show his serious engagement with questions of pedagogy."
Thomas Worcester:
"Carolina Armenteros attempts to demonstrate in this book that Maistre was more... moderate than has been alleged, that he drew on some of the leading Enlightenment thinkers, and that his influence on a variety of approaches to the philosophy of history was enormous, at least until the mid-nineteenth century... this study, a rather old-fashioned history of ideas and of 'great' men, is well worth the attention of a broad range of intellectual, political, cultural, and religious historians."
Dale K. Van Kley, The Ohio State University, author of The Religious Origins of the French Revolution:
"The French Idea of History is a beautifully—even poetically—written book. Joseph de Maistre is unquestionably the most profound and influential representative of the theocratic school of post–French revolutionary political and social philosophers, and this book, altogether worthy of its subject, is the most profound biography of Maistre that now exists."
Christopher Guyver:
"Carolina Armenteros has written a superb work on a writer many of us either dismissed or thought we knew well enough already."
Kenneth L. Parker:
"Though Maistre neither practised the craft of history nor produced a comprehensive philosophy of history, he exercised such an influence over early nineteenth-century historical reasoning that echoes of his thought are still felt into our own time. Yet until this work, Maistre's lasting impact has rarely been acknowledged. Carolina Armenteros’s book is of critical importance, and should be studied by anyone interested in issues related to the modern Christian appropriations of historical reasoning."
Darrin M. McMahon, Ben Weider Professor of History, The Florida State University:
"Gracefully written and deeply researched, this is quite simply the most important book on Maistre to appear in some time. Yet it is far more than just an intellectual biography of a single individual: Wide-ranging and consistently insightful, Carolina Armenteros's book is a broad meditation on the paradoxes and power of the past."
Martin Simpson:
"Armenteros marries meticulous scholarship with provocative and original arguments to produce a work that will become required reading for any scholars interested in Joseph de Maistre, counter-revolutionary thought, or nineteenth century philosophies of history."
""This book represents the fullest articulation of her own distinctive positionfollowing on from her recent spate of excellent articles.... Anyone interested in studying Maistre on his own terms should start with this excellentlucideruditeand highly original bookbut also bear in mind that the Maistre it reveals would probably have proved unrecognizable to most of his contemporaries"—Francesco Manzini"
Matthijs Lok:
"The French Idea of ?History is valuable because it sheds a new and different light on French historical thinking, placing an unusual suspect like Maistre at the center.. [It] is a challenging book, an intellectual tour de force in which an original story is told about the origin of (French) historical thinking."
Michael Drolet:
"One of the strengths of this book is the importance it places on Maistre's intellectual context. Armenteros goes to considerable lengths to describe the intellectual and historical backdrop against which Maistre's ideas emerged and developed. The account she gives is detailed and illuminating. In particular, she should be complimented for the way she shows how Maistre's famous 1819 Du pape (a work he composed when in Saint Petersburg) must be read in the context of religious and political developments in Russia,and the schism between the Eastern churches and Rome."
Graeme Garrard:
"With an impressively deep and extensive knowledge of her subject, Armenteros writes in a refreshingly clear and lucid style and her book contains original, thought-provoking interpretations of many of Maistre's most important and controversial works, such as Les Soirees de Saint-Petersbourg and Du pape. Armenteros has also situated these texts in their historical contexts in ways that are both revealing and often highly insightful."
Charles Sullivan:
"With impressive energy and erudition, Armenteros has overcome... difficulties to recover Maistre's formative role in the articulation of a distinctively French idea of history."
Cyprian Blamires:
"The French Idea of History is immensely rich in insights and suggestions... a marvelous piece of original research. What the author has achieved is to enable us to look beyond the Ultramontanist dimension of his thought which has so often led to Maistre being relegated to the sidelines of history, and to see the crucial influences of his work in later historical thinking."
Aurelian Craiutu:
"A rich, learned, and ambitious book."
David W. Bates:
"Carolina Armenteros's innovative and provocative study of Joseph de Maistre goes beyond previous attempts to reclaim the complexity of counterrevolutionary thinking for intellectual history.... Armenteros's close reading of Maistre leaves no doubt that he is closely connected to the key conceptual turn marking postrevolutionary historical thought in Europe."
Jonathan Beecher, UC Santa Cruz, author of Charles Fourier: The Visionary and His World:
"Although Joseph de Maistre is widely recognized as a brilliant stylist, a master of French prose, he is also seen as an authoritarian defender of throne and altar, a zealous monarchist, and a bigoted and inflexible supporter of papal authority. His gifts as a stylist are sometimes used to discount his political theory; in Carolina Armenteros's trenchant expression, Maistre has been 'praised as a writer into oblivion as a political theorist.' In fact, argues Armenteros in this subtle, provocative, and at times stunningly original book, the traditional image of Maistre is deeply misleading. Far from being a complete reactionary seeking a return to an idealized past, Maistre was in at least some respects a moderate who recognized the necessity for political change—so long as it took place gradually, without bloodshed and within the framework of existing institutions."
