Europe Aflame and the Fight for a New World, 1848-1849
Starred review from April 17, 2023
Bitter defeat bequeathed lasting victories in the pan-European revolutions of 1848, according to this sweeping history. Cambridge historian Clark (Iron Kingdom) untangles the chaotic political conflagrations that engulfed Europe, starting with a rebellion in Sicily; then moving to Paris, where an uprising forced French king Louis Philippe to abdicate to a revolutionary provisional government; then on to Vienna, Berlin, and other capitals where governments conceded constitutional reforms, an end to censorship, the emancipation of Jews, and other freedoms. These euphoric liberal triumphs gave way, he continues, to acrimonious divisions between middle-class revolutionary leaders and radicals who demanded guaranteed jobs, wages, and labor rights for workers—in Vienna even the choirboys went on strike—along with nationalist programs that threatened to unravel Europe’s empires. The revolutions seemed to fail in 1849, when liberals and conservatives united to bloodily reimpose authoritarian, monarchical control, but Clark argues that they left behind a durable new regime of constitutional, parliamentary, reformist politics. Clark integrates the welter of local conflicts into a coherent grand narrative, grounding it in searching analyses of the era’s economic and social tensions, political instabilities, and ideological fervors while also spotlighting the magnetic personalities (Karl Marx, Richard Wagner) and tragic romance of the upheaval. It’s a magisterial recreation of an explosion that birthed the modern world. Illus. Agent: Andrew Wylie, Wylie Agency.
