496 pages, Basic Books, ISBN-13: 978-0465014361
“The Spring of Nations”; “The People’s Spring”; Springtime of the Peoples”; “The Year of Revolution” – that is what the year 1848 was to many people of the long 19th Century, when a series of political upheavals tore through Europe, marking the first cracks in Metternich’s post-Waterloo reactionary order and making it the most widespread revolutionary wave in European history. The multiple insurrections and revolts in the European states – some old and venerable, others newly established at the Treaty of Vienna following the Napoleonic Wars – are recorded by Mike Rapport in 1848: Year of Revolution. Uprisings of varying degrees swept across much of Europe, including France, Italy, Germany, Prussia, Austria and Hungary. While no two revolutions were exactly alike, they all tended to be nationalist, liberal, democratic and sometimes even republican, in the sense of giving the heave-ho to the reigning monarch or at least attempting to rein in their reigns via constitutions. And the movements experienced exciting successes – exciting, but short-lived, for within a year most of the democratic and liberal advances had been swept away by counter-revolutions that restored power to conservative monarchs in nearly every country. Nationalism fared somewhat better, and the revolutions of 1848 arguably advanced the cause of first Italian and then German unification in the coming decades. Oh, and The Communist Manifesto was unleashed on the world, too.
1848 is a concise, readable summation of the events of this 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. Due to its ubiquitous nature, a major event like 1848 poses special problems for any historian wishing to provide an account for the general public, but Rapport rises admirably to the task. For a variety of reasons, the Ancien Régimes either couldn’t or wouldn’t address the issues most affecting their peoples, from peasants seeking an end to serfdom and other feudal duties, to liberals who wanted sensible political reforms, to radicals who wanted republics instead of monarchies, to nationalists who wanted their own countries, i.e. Italy and Germany, especially. Despite the old order’s best efforts, long repressed grievances and issues came to a boil in 1848, and Rapport depicts the crucial moments in a year filled with high drama: the abdication of Louis Philippe, the last king of France (truly, this time); the fall of Metternich in Austria; the wars that raged up and down Italy with heroes like Garibaldi earning international fame; 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’s greatest weakness is also his greatest strength as, like many academic historians, he is comprehensive and exhaustive to a fault, but his writing also makes you feel that you’re not missing out on any of the important events, even in a sweeping work like 1848. However, by seeming to include every fact (however insignificant it may be) and every person (however minor a role they may have played) in his story, what often comes across to the reader is a recitation of many facts, told about innumerable people, but with little explanation of their connection to the overarching narrative. Want to know what I mean? Okay, let’s play a little game, class: read the following sentence and count how many different pieces of information you can discern: “His [Count Josip Jelačić’s] dizzying rise began in the summer when [Count Lajos] Batthyány, well aware of Hungary’s shortage of munitions, ordered him to buy ammunition from abroad and to learn how percussion caps were made – a skill which, ironically, he duly studied at the imperial fireworks factory in Wiener-Neustadt”. I mean…dang. This authorial tick can sometimes have its brighter side, as when he introduces us to Ferdinand I of Austria: “Since 1835 the Emperor had been the mentally disabled Ferdinand (in one famous outburst, he yelled at his courtiers, ‘I am the Emperor and I want dumplings!’). He was loved by his subjects, who affectionately referred to him as ‘Ferdy the Loony’." I mean, that’s good stuff.
By recounting each of these stages in parallel across multiple countries, Rapport clearly establishes his thesis that what happened in 1848 was a European phenomenon, not a set of individual national events. This is not a work for the uninitiated, for the reader had best have a good grasp of European history before attempting to read this one as Rapport assumes a good amount of knowledge on this subject on the part of his readers, and his own analysis of the era is detailed and quite well done.
1848 is a concise, readable summation of the events of this 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. Due to its ubiquitous nature, a major event like 1848 poses special problems for any historian wishing to provide an account for the general public, but Rapport rises admirably to the task. For a variety of reasons, the Ancien Régimes either couldn’t or wouldn’t address the issues most affecting their peoples, from peasants seeking an end to serfdom and other feudal duties, to liberals who wanted sensible political reforms, to radicals who wanted republics instead of monarchies, to nationalists who wanted their own countries, i.e. Italy and Germany, especially. Despite the old order’s best efforts, long repressed grievances and issues came to a boil in 1848, and Rapport depicts the crucial moments in a year filled with high drama: the abdication of Louis Philippe, the last king of France (truly, this time); the fall of Metternich in Austria; the wars that raged up and down Italy with heroes like Garibaldi earning international fame; 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’s greatest weakness is also his greatest strength as, like many academic historians, he is comprehensive and exhaustive to a fault, but his writing also makes you feel that you’re not missing out on any of the important events, even in a sweeping work like 1848. However, by seeming to include every fact (however insignificant it may be) and every person (however minor a role they may have played) in his story, what often comes across to the reader is a recitation of many facts, told about innumerable people, but with little explanation of their connection to the overarching narrative. Want to know what I mean? Okay, let’s play a little game, class: read the following sentence and count how many different pieces of information you can discern: “His [Count Josip Jelačić’s] dizzying rise began in the summer when [Count Lajos] Batthyány, well aware of Hungary’s shortage of munitions, ordered him to buy ammunition from abroad and to learn how percussion caps were made – a skill which, ironically, he duly studied at the imperial fireworks factory in Wiener-Neustadt”. I mean…dang. This authorial tick can sometimes have its brighter side, as when he introduces us to Ferdinand I of Austria: “Since 1835 the Emperor had been the mentally disabled Ferdinand (in one famous outburst, he yelled at his courtiers, ‘I am the Emperor and I want dumplings!’). He was loved by his subjects, who affectionately referred to him as ‘Ferdy the Loony’." I mean, that’s good stuff.
By recounting each of these stages in parallel across multiple countries, Rapport clearly establishes his thesis that what happened in 1848 was a European phenomenon, not a set of individual national events. This is not a work for the uninitiated, for the reader had best have a good grasp of European history before attempting to read this one as Rapport assumes a good amount of knowledge on this subject on the part of his readers, and his own analysis of the era is detailed and quite well done.
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