1848: Year of Revolution

WOW, I was thrilled when my book arrived. It was a hardback, which I didn't realize, and the price was so good that I just loved it. Going back to school and found the price was 1/3 of the bookstore price. Gerry

1848 was an important year in European history. It was the year when revolts of middle class thinkers joined with workers to threaten the stifling status quo of European monarchy. This historical survey of that momentous year looks at events in five principle empires: 1. Austria-Franz Joseph takes the throne as rioting breaks out against the government in Vienna. Austria wages a brutal war against the Italian states she governs. The year ends with the forces of conservativism and monarchy in charge. The Austro-Hungarian empire will collapse in World War I. 2. Italy-This country is a patchwork of various duchys and monarchial regimes. Among the most powerful are Piedmont, Tuscany and Lombardy. Efforts by separatist rebels in Sicily are crushed. This is the year in which the heroes of Italian independence began to play a role in Italian and Vatican affairs. Men like Mazzini and Garabaldi enter center stage. The Pope Pius IX is driven from Rome by the French army. Italy is a nation of poor crops and a large illiterate population. Independence will not come until the 1860's when the yoke of Austria is removed Italy's neck. 3. Prussia-A strong militaristic state under Emperor Friedrich Wilhelm this is the most powerful state in the Germanic lands. Prussia will eventually unite Germany in 1870 and defeat her chief rival France in the Franco-Prussian war. Efforts to unite the various German states are not successful during 1848. 4. France is a nation rife with political turmoil. Louis Napoleon emerges from the fray to be crowned as Napoleon III. France is an economy in shambles with crop failures and peasant unrest. 5. Russia is the most backward and autocratically ruled of the major nations in Europe. Czar Nicholas I clamps down on personal freedoms and censors the press. Dissidents are executed or shipped to Siberia. The peasants are still living in serfdom and will not be freed until 1860. Dr. Rapport devotes a great deal of attention to the complex political and military chess moves involved in the politics of central European countries such as Hungary, Czechoslovakia and Poland. This material was new to me and will either interest or bore the American reader. The period saw the emergence of such luminaries as Karl Marx, Fredrick Engles, Bismarck, Garibalid, Mazzini, Louis Kossuth and Alexander Herzen. These leaders and thinkers are given attention by the author. While the result of the quest for political and social freedom came a cropper in 1848 the seeds for future revolutionary movements in Europe were solidly planted to emerge in the Communist Revolution of 1917. Ethnic hatreds are also on evident display in these many pages. These racial and ethnic phobias will also emerge into twentieth century conflicts. Racial hatred for the Jews is discussed which is a harbinger of the rise of Fascism and the Nazi party. Dr. Rapport has done a great job researching a complex topic. However, his writing style reads like a dry as dust textbook. The b

1848 marks the beginning of general revolution in Europe, the first crack in von Metternich's reactionary order, the greatest upheaval since the French revolution in 1792. The revolutions of 1848 are even more remarkable than their predecessor in that they were so widespread and multiple, with uprisings in Western, Central, and Eastern Europe. Due to its ubiquitious nature, a major event like 1848 poses special problems for any historian wishing to provide an account for the general public. Mike Rapport rises admirably to the task, however. His new book is a concise, readable summarization of the events of that fateful year, from the glorious spring and summer that raised such high hopes for the cause of revolution and reform, to the gathering of the counter-revolutionary forces that slowly crushed resistance everywhere in the grim days of autumn. Rapport gives a good general view of the factors that led to revolution in 1848. At that point, Europe had been held in check for over 30 years by repressive, reactionary regimes,all cobbled together by von Metternich at the Treaty of Berlin of 1815 in a careful balance of power enforced by the great powers: Great Britain, Russia, Prussia, France, and Austria. Despite the old's order's best efforts, long repressed grievances and issues came to a boil in 1848. These varied from peasants seeking an end to serfdom and feudal duties, to liberals who wanted sensible reform, to radicals who wanted a republic instead of a monarch, to (very importantly)nationalists who wanted their own country. For various reasons, reactionary pigheadedness large among them, the old order either could not or would not address these issues. Rapport succinctly tells how these factors led to insurrection. Crucial moments in a year filled with high drama are vividly depicted: the abdication of Louis-Phillipe, the last king of France,the fall of von Metternich, the wars that raged up and down Italy with heroes like Garibaldi, and the sad end of the revolutions when so many men died in a vain effort to hold onto their newfound gains. In this respect, the execution of Hungarian officers by the Austrians at the end of the rebellion stands out as particularly tragic and cruel. Rapport concludes on a basically upward note, pointing out that while the revolutions of 1848 generally ended in military defeat for their supporters, many aspects of the changes sought by the revolutionaries (such as constitutional government) came about as a result. He also notes that 1848 can be interpreted as marking a turning point in the general evolution in Europe away from centuries of absolutist government and war to parliamentary democracy and general stability. I agree with him that the general state of European affairs is considerably more stable and democratic than during most of its previous history. Given the current dismal state of the world's economy and the possibility of other stresses (environmental, energy, etc.), I can

1848 was a very noteworthy year in world history. Here in North America, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo following the Mexican War gave the United States its present-day Southwest, while in Europe, there was a series of revolutions that had reverberations that affected that continent into the twentieth century. Mike Rapport examines what happened in the revolutions on the other side of the Atlantic in "1848: Year of Revolution". He examines some of the factors that led to the unrest, including nationalism, economic dislocation, and demands on the part of the people for reforms such as free speech, regular parliaments, religious freedom, and trial by jury. The author provides a good account of the colorful characters and military campaigns associated with the revolutions, and lists the causes, including divisions between liberals and radicals, that led to the failure of the revolutions. Rapport explains why, despite the fact that the revolutions appeared to be failures in the short term, they were not failures ultimately, in that many of the goals of the revolutionaries were adopted in later decades. The author closes by comparing the revolutions of 1989 to those of 1848. Even the pages of illustrations in the book are very good--included is a stunning daguerreotype of barricades in Paris.

Having just read Jonathan Keates excellent The Siege of Venice, and while presently half way through Jasper Ridley's Garibaldi, I was tempted by 1848 when it appeared at my local bookshop; so, putting aside Garibaldi, I plunged headlong into Mike Rapport's brilliant narrative, emerging the richer for the experience. The subject matter for 1848 is wide ranging and complex in the extreme but Mike Rapport gives us a highly readable, cohesive narrative that bristles with all the hopes and disappointments of the time. We are given cameo appearances of some of the main personalities involved: Alexander Herzen, Karl Marx, Kossuth, Mazzini, Garibaldi, Bismarck and Napolean III, who has all the odiousness of a modern day politicain; comfortably voted into power, the author makes a fine point in reminding us of his act of perjury. There are others of course, all contributing to this lively narrative. Despite pre-1848 social unrest and revolutionary tremors, 1848 was a phenomenon in itself where a population explosion coupled with food shortages impelled the peasantry and working class to merge spontaneously with a liberal middle class, whose agenda was directed at a broadening of the constitution and male suffrage, and freedom of the press and opinion within a congenial atmosphere for reform. This drag net of unrest cut across many social groups where the working class were just one segment. Interestingly, Karl Marx appeared intransigent even then, attempting to radicalise this surge by insisting on a class war of workers against the status quo and almost ignoring or holding in contempt the diversity of the groups involved. This endemic lack of flexibility in Marx and others would soon become general, ultimately, along with an inherent fear of anarchy, undermining the initial homogeneity of the revolution, setting radicals and republicans against liberals and moderates, while the peasantry would split off and join the landed conservatives with their new found emancipation. Finally, with attitudes hardening as national aspirations rose, the reactionary regimes, sensing the divide between radicals and moderates (compounded in central and eastern Europe by ethnic divisions), drove the wedge home with the military arm still under their control. This could be seen as a very broad outline but it is subject to contradictions and variations according to the different European regions that fall under the sweep of the narrative. Mike does a thrilling job at keeping the various epicentres of the revolution on the boil simultaneously; as we crisply make our way through the book, the various strands continue to be gathered together. The Conclusion is masterful, balancing despair with hope and contrasting the verdicts of history with the telescopic lens of the fall of communism in 1989; the lessons of 1848 are relevant to the 21st century also and should never be forgotten. Based primarily on secondary sources (but what a selection: Frank Eyck, Jonathan Keates etc