Best book about 1848?

September 30, 2020 3:09 PM

Why did authoritarianism win in 1848? Looking for book recommendations that get into the why, not just the who and when.
posted by clawsoon to Society & Culture (5 answers total)

WOW! so this was a big area of study for me in college, however that was a while ago. Are you more interested in the failed attempts in italy or germany? I will dig up my sources if you like. Palmer's "history of the modern world" (get a later version) covered it really well.
posted by evilmonk at 3:11 PM on September 30, 2020 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Ideally Europe-wide, which I guess would include successes as well as failures... thanks!
posted by clawsoon at 3:17 PM on September 30, 2020

Holy Madness by Adam Zamoyski is broader in terms of both time and place (it covers the Bolivar revolutions in South America as well as European liberal nationalism), but I think it might answer your questions.
posted by kevinbelt at 5:24 PM on September 30, 2020 [1 favorite]

Chris Clark is working on a major study which promises to change our understanding of 1848 just as The Sleepwalkers changed our understanding of 1914. In the meantime, read his essay, 'Why should we think about the Revolutions of 1848 now?' (or watch the lecture here) or for more advanced reading, see the reading-list for the course he teaches at Cambridge, 1848 Revolutions. At the top of that list you'll find some general reading, including Mike Rapport, 1848: Year of Revolution, and Jonathan Sperber, The European Revolutions 1848-1851.
posted by verstegan at 1:20 AM on October 1, 2020 [3 favorites]

Response by poster: evilmonk made a late recommendation for me of Restoration, Revolution, Reaction: Economics and Politics in Germany, 1815-1871. It only covered Germany, but it was great. It argues that there was an alliance between the bourgeois, artisans and peasants which made the revolutions, and that the determination of the bourgeois to stick to high principles (which just happened to benefit them the most and screw over the artisans and peasants) allowed reactionary forces to peel the artisans and peasants off the alliance. Very interesting book, would recommend.
posted by clawsoon at 6:30 PM on July 25, 2021