Hardback : £26.41
An exhilarating reappraisal of one of the most dramatic years in European history
There can be few more exciting or frightening moments in European history than the spring of 1848. As if by magic, in city after city, from Palermo to Paris, huge crowds gathered, sometimes peaceful and sometimes violent, and the political order that had held sway since the defeat of Napoleon simply collapsed.
Christopher Clark's spectacular new book recreates with verve, wit and insight this extraordinary period. Some rulers gave up at once, others fought bitterly, but everywhere new politicians, beliefs and expectations surged forward. The role of women in society, the end of slavery, the right to work, national independence and the emancipation of the Jews all became live issues.
Clark conjures up both this ferment of new ideas and then the increasingly ruthless series of counter-attacks launched by regimes who still turned out to have many cards to play. But even in defeat, exiles spread the ideas of 1848 around the world and - for better and sometimes much worse - a new and very different Europe emerged from the wreckage.
An exhilarating reappraisal of one of the most dramatic years in European history
There can be few more exciting or frightening moments in European history than the spring of 1848. As if by magic, in city after city, from Palermo to Paris, huge crowds gathered, sometimes peaceful and sometimes violent, and the political order that had held sway since the defeat of Napoleon simply collapsed.
Christopher Clark's spectacular new book recreates with verve, wit and insight this extraordinary period. Some rulers gave up at once, others fought bitterly, but everywhere new politicians, beliefs and expectations surged forward. The role of women in society, the end of slavery, the right to work, national independence and the emancipation of the Jews all became live issues.
Clark conjures up both this ferment of new ideas and then the increasingly ruthless series of counter-attacks launched by regimes who still turned out to have many cards to play. But even in defeat, exiles spread the ideas of 1848 around the world and - for better and sometimes much worse - a new and very different Europe emerged from the wreckage.
Christopher Clark is the Regius Professor of History at the University of Cambridge. He was knighted in 2015. His previous books are The Politics of Conversion, Kaiser Wilhelm II, Iron Kingdom, The Sleepwalkers, Time and Power and Prisoners of Time.
Magnificent, authoritative and deeply-researched... a supreme work
of scholarship.
*The Telegraph*
Clark has achieved the impossible: a synoptic history of a subject
which defies synopsis... this is history on an epic scale... a
masterpiece and one of the best history books you will read this
decade.
*History Today*
Refreshingly original... it's fascinating, suspenseful, revelatory,
alive. Familiar characters are given vibrancy and previously
unknown players emerge from the shadows.. Clark's prose is
beautiful but also crystal clear
*The Times*
Magnificent... does a remarkable job weaving together the myriad
strands that make up the narrative, allowing us to see the events
in granular detail and with synoptic, Europe-wide vision.
*Observer*
Full of characters, colour and story, but also makes the arresting
case that the revolutions ... changed Europe and the world in ways
felt to this day... the history teacher you wished you'd had.
*Daily Mail*
A marvel of research and analysis. No corner of Europe, from the
Ukrainian borderlands to the Greek islands, escapes his gaze.. a
titanic monument to historical scholarship.
*Sunday Times*
Exhilarating, heroic, horrifying and tragic, the events of the
mid-19th century in Europe invite a good retelling ... Christopher
Clark's new book is, arguably, the best to date ... deeply
researched, rich, engaging and though-provoking. There is now no
better place to turn for readers who want to immerse themselves in
this period and to reflect on how it resonates today.
*Literary Review*
Thrills with unexpected energy ... this is narrative history in the
grand style ... superb.
*Times Literary Supplement*
An engrossing dissection of a revolutionary year in European
society.
*The Independent*
Scintillating ... [a] magnificent chronicle of the events leading
up to and beyond 1848 ... he tackles the complexity by giving
sufficient space to the often thrilling stories of every
uprising.
*Economist*
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