1848 and all that

At a time of seemingly uncontrollable environmental, geopolitical, and economic crises, the revolutionary wave that swept Europe in 1848 has much to teach us. 

The historian Christopher Clark’s profound and illuminating new book, Revolutionary Spring: Fighting for a New World, 1848-1849, is a masterly demonstration of how remote historical periods can sometimes speak with urgency to the present.

The idea of a continent-wide conspiracy fired both the revolutionary imagination and the nightmares of the old order; but this narrative was fundamentally a distraction. 

What really tied the continent together was shared social immiseration, fueled by the shortages that followed bad harvests and crop blights – notably the potato fungus that devastated northern Europe (with the worst effects in Ireland).

As in his influential account of the origins of World War I, The Sleepwalkers, Clark once again offers a powerful description of how violence can become pervasive.

Harold James Project Syndicate 4 August 2023

The First Polycrisis by Harold James - Project Syndicate (project-syndicate.org)

Revolutionary Spring

EUROPE AFLAME AND THE FIGHT FOR A NEW WORLD, 1848-1849 By Christopher Clark

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/575663/revolutionary-spring-by-christopher-clark/

The Sleepwalkers

How Europe Went to War in 1914

https://www.harpercollins.com/products/the-sleepwalkers-christopher-clark