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)

 

My Amazon Review of Donald Sassoon's "The Anxious Triumph: A Global History of Capitalism 1860-1914"

Global Capitalism 1.0

University of London history professor Donald Sassoon could have written a great book for the lay reader describing the first global epoch of capitalism. Unfortunately he took all of the drama out of one of the most dramatic eras in world economic history. Perhaps I am being too harsh because of my amateur status, but his 768 page book, although loaded with information, is a long and difficult slog.

Sassoon’s book lacks the drama of Marx’s 1848 “Communist Manifesto” where praises how the rising capitalist bourgeoisie was transforming Europe. Where Marx showed excitement Sassoon is plodding. Much later Keynes’s “Economic Consequences…” highlights what was available to England’s pre-war bourgeoisie with the mere dialing of a telephone (no telephones in 1860). It would have been nice if he described the life of the bourgeoisie and the working class of 1860 and compared it to that of 1914. The world changed for better for both classes. It would have helped if Sassoon studied Robert Gordon’s “The Rise and Fall of American Growth.” Remember that the first global age began with the telegraph and the steamship and ended with the telephone, electric lights and the internal combustion engine, all three invented around 1879. It was those three inventions created under capitalist auspices that changed the world.

For a history of capitalism, very few capitalists are mentioned. I was hoping to learn about the methods and vision of the European and Japanese capitalists who built their societies, but came away disappointed. The author describes the rise of capitalism in a host of countries, but he doesn’t put flesh and bones on it. He seems to be more interested in the political leadership than the rising capitalist class.

He further sets up a straw man by arguing that the neo-liberals of the 1980s harkened back to a capitalist nirvana of the 1860s when government’s role in the economy was small. He rightly states that government played a major role in capitalist development everywhere and practically all neo-liberals knew it. Sassoon favored more government involvement and he appears to be very sympathetic to the German protectionist of the 1840s Friedrich List.

Where Sassoon is good is his discussion on the huge profits Britain generated from the sale of opium to China and that colonialism, especially in Africa, wasn’t all that profitable for Europe. Most trade took place among the more developed countries. He also highlights that much of 19^th century America was built with European capital.

My sense is that only the nerdiest of lay readers will find this book of interest. There is a lot here but it takes time to plow through.

For the full Amazon URL see: https://www.amazon.com/review/R1EG4VG2S3487Z/ref=pe_1098610_137716200_cm_rv_eml_rv0_rv