Product Description

In 1848, a violent storm of revolutions ripped through Europe. The torrent all but swept away the conservative order that had kept peace on the continent since Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo in 1815, but which in many countries had also suppressed dreams of national freedom and parliamentary government. The brick-built authoritarian edifice that had imposed itself on Europeans for almost two generations collapsed when set against the weight of the insurrections. With an astounding rapidity, crowds of working class radicals and middle class liberals in Paris, Milan, Venice, Naples, Palermo, Vienna, Prague, Budapest, Krakow, Munich and Berlin toppled the old regimes and began the task of forging a new order. Political events so dramatic had not been seen in Europe since the French Revolution of 1789 and would not be witnessed again until the revolutions of Eastern and Central Europe in 1989. This vivid and enlightening book traces the roots of the revolutions and then, with breathtaking pace, describes how these explosions of violence spread across Europe, and explains how their effects are still with us today.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #256517 in Books
• Published on: 2008-06-05
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 480 pages

Review
'Across Europe an unprecedented wave of revolutions toppled old orders from Krakow to Paris. This lively history gives an impressive overview and examines how those insurrections shape modern Europe' SCOTLAND ON SUNDAY

About the Author
Mike Rapport was born in New York, educated in Dorset and the universities of Edinburgh and Bristol. He is currently Lecturer in History at the University of Stirling