A specter is haunting Europe, the specter is haunting Europe, the specter of communism.

All the powers of old Europe have entered into a holy alliance to exercise this specter.

Pope and Tsar, Mernich and Gizzo, French radicals, and German police spies.

Where is the party in opposition that has not been decried as communistic by its opponents in power?

Where the opposition that has not hurled back the branding reproach of communism against the more advanced opposition parties as well as against its reactionary

adversaries. Communism is already acknowledged by all European powers to be itself a power.

Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, the manifesto of the Communist Party.

Welcome to the history of the 20th century.

The 20th century. Episode 18, The Specter Haunting Europe.

Now, as I've mentioned before, the principal political debate of the 19th century was

conservatives versus liberals. And as I have cautioned you before, be very careful which side

you want to jump into on this debate because the words conservative and liberal do not mean the same thing that they mean today.

Liberalism was the bright new thing of the 19th century, and the American and French revolutions were its birth pangs.

Liberalism challenged the age-old order in Europe, which held that a certain readily identifiable

class of people, the aristocracy, are just plain smarter and better than everybody else,

and the natural order of society is for those people to lead and everyone else to follow.

Against this old order, liberalism proposes a bold new framework.

Everyone is equal. Everyone has something to offer.

No one should presume to tell another what to think, what to say, what to believe.

Every person should be free to find their own way in the world and pursue their own happiness to coin a phrase.

Governments must be equally responsive to every citizen, and every citizen should have

a voice in government policy.

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