since man blundered into civilization, he has been at war with himself. Much as theologians would have it otherwise, this is not a conflict of angels against devils, man's best against his worst, in a battle for his soul. No, this is a war of actual significance that has consequences for himself and for humanity.
Opposing one another across the battlefield of human nature are two powerful antagonists, man's desire for order and man's desire for freedom. The former subverts freedom by electing tyrants to impose peace and structure upon the world. The latter, meanwhile, agitates against order by investing every man with the pains and responsibilities for his own liberty. Unlike conventional wars, this most internal conflict may never end; after all, the wisdom necessary to find the proper balance between such contrary forces may only be found in the divine. But as help from the gods does not seem forthcoming, all we can do is look to past skirmishes and hope that somewhere, within this sea of tyrants and troublemakers, we can find some kind of harmony. In this effort, the revolutions that convulsed Europe in 1848 can be quite instructive.
1848 is Mr. Rapport's meticulous reconstruction of the cries for liberty that thundered across Europe in that most revolutionary year. A generation after the Congress of Vienna restored authoritarian rule to a continent tormented by Napoleonic populism, an entirely new disagreement erupted, putting to an end 30 years of imposed peace. Unlike the Napoleonic Wars which were rooted in a dangerous and ultimately tragic militarism, this new war was social in nature, fuelled by the socioeconomic inequities characteristic of all authoritarian states. The working classes, in want of access to food, capital and self-rule, rebelled, overthrowing a monarchy in France, igniting the spirit of national unity in Italy and the German states, and rolling back the imperialism of the Habsburg Empire which, at this time, governed much of central Europe. These revolutions, influenced both by the democratic success in the United States and the intellectual contributions of Marx and Engels, sought to replace kings and emperors with presidents and prime ministers. Constitutions were written, republics declared, parliaments held.
But while these revolutions achieved many, early successes, it took only a matter of months for discord to set in. The revolutionaries had, in the end, only the revolution in common. They were, otherwise, ethnically, politically and socially diverse. Some wanted only an end to authoritarian rule while others desired democracy. Some favored only a limited franchise while others agitated for universal male suffrage. Some wanted a moderate, progressive actualization of reforms while others advocated that the rotten anthill be kicked over and swiftly replaced with a new and better way. Under these pressures, these once-united revolutionaries fragmented into combative factions, some insisting on order, others shouting for freedom. Against this divided front, it proved surprisingly easy for the washed-out tide of absolutest rule to sweep back across the European shore and obliterate most, if not all, of the political gains of 1848.
It is no surprise that the 1848 revolutions hold little fascination for anyone outside academia. But for Napoleon III and Giuseppe Garibaldi, this upheaval produced no historical giants, men who withstood the rigors of time to be immortalized by our culture. More over, Mr. Rapport's scholarly style, here, does very little to make these uprisings any more accessible; 1848's dryness is on par with most of its characters. But while Mr. Rapport fails to inject his work with the verve characteristic of most popular histories, he has done a wonderful job of both thoroughly reconstructing a tumult of chaotic and confusing events and extracting from them a logical conclusion. For while the revolutions of 1848 may not have given birth to many actual reforms, they sparked in the hearts and minds of the subsequent generations ideas of freedom and universal brotherhood that would culminate in the liberalization of the 20th century.
A solid history. Mr. Rapport does not miss his subject's central dilemma. Man desires to be free, but how free? How much discord is he willing to entertain in order to be free? It is a question that doomed the revolutions of 1848. Will it linger over us for the centuries to come as well? (3/5 Stars)
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