My Amazon Review of Christopher Clark's "Revolutionary Spring: Europe Aflame......"

 Revolution was in the Air

 

Contrary to the “Communist Manifesto” the specter haunting Europe in 1848 was not communism, but rather nationalism.  In this way too long 891-page book the distinguished historian Cambridge’s Christopher Clark recounts the revolutions that swept through Europe in 1848.  Starting in Palermo in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies and then spreading to Paris, Germany, Vienna, Romania, Hungary, and Poland. Europe was aflame with liberals and radicals demanding fundamental reforms. The liberal goals were limited to formal constitutions, political rights, and suffrage for the property-owning classes while the radicals were demanding full manhood suffrage and a right to a job. In the end the liberals would win out.

 

Clark starts his history with the 1815 Vienna settlement’s reaction to the French Revolution and then goes on to discuss the growing immiseration of the working class as the industrial revolution moves into high gear. The problems of the working class were defined as “the social question” by many of the intellectuals of the day. Falling real wages and periodic draughts characterized the milieu according to Clark.

 

Here is where I believe, as an amateur, Clark goes astray. It seems to me that Clark ignores Marx’s paean to the bourgeoisie in his manifesto. To quote “…has created massive and colossal productive forces…chemistry, agriculture, steam navigation, electric telegraphs and canals.” Again, in Marx’s words, “all that is solid melts into air.” In my opinion Clark should have spent much more time on the technological disruption that created the material basis for the revolutions. Indeed, the improved technology enabled the news of the Paris revolt to spread quickly throughout Europe.

 

The revolutions failed because of the radical-liberal split, the failure to bring the military on board, and the near complete lack of understanding of rural Europe by the urban intellectuals. Doesn’t that sound familiar? Remember Marx himself called it “the idiocy of rural life.”

 

However, the revolutions were in no way a long-term failure. Post-1850 new constitutions were written, Germany and Italy would be unified within twenty years, Jews were largely emancipated, and there were massive public investment programs in railroads, health, roads, and canals. The economy was about to boom and with it the ideas of social democracy and women’s rights took hold. Moreover, the pattern of radical movements centering around cafes and newspapers was firmly established and that would last up to the late 20^th century.

 

This is a massive book and there is much to be learned, but as I noted in the beginning it is far too long for the educated lay reader.

For the full Amazon URL see: Revolution was in the Air (amazon.com)