I think, by "men of leisure" as in "this passion for freedom for its own sake awoke in and was nourished by men of leisure, by the hommes de lettres who h

I think, by "men of leisure" as in "this passion for freedom for its own sake awoke in and was nourished by men of leisure, by the hommes de lettres who had no masters and were not always busy making a living." Arendt means those people who participated in the American Revolution (1775) and the upper middle class members in the Third Estate who pioneered the French Revolution (1789). The Spanish anarchism and the Revolutions of 1848 could somewhat be viewed as some parts of a long series of consequences of the French Revolution (1789). I feel Her essay touches many points about various revolutions in Europe in the second millennium and her emphasis may not just simply lie at the beginning or the end of this lecture notes. There are quite lot of details and points to argue here.