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1848: Year Of Revolution (2010)

by Mike Rapport(Favorite Author)

3.54 of 5 Votes: 4

ISBN

0465020674 (ISBN13: 9780465020676)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Basic Books

review 1: I struggled with this book. As an avid reader of Victorian-era history, I expected to love it, but Rapport doesn't give us enough of a story line to hang his facts on. And he provides a never-ending flow of facts, details, and trivia. Partly the problem is the subject -- he's trying to cover Germany, with all its little states, Italy, with ditto, Austria, France, Hungary, the UK, the Baltic states -- and on and on. Each one of these countries suffered some sort of cataclysm during the 1848-49 period and Rapport provides us with a staggering level of detail about these events. It's all too much without a sense of the larger picture. Rapport will introduce a name of some obscure Austrian politician in one paragraph, give us two sentences about his views on a bill before... more one of the nascent political bodies, and then never mention him again. This goes on for page after page.Historians need to tell us the story as well as the facts, and Rapport falls down on the former while excelling on the latter.
review 2: I bought this book to learn about conditions in Europe that led some of our ancestors to head to America. It provides abundant detail on Austria-Hungary, the German states, and Italy among others. Although the book was only marginally helpful for my family history needs, it gave a fascinating picture of the growth of liberal political movements, professional revolutionaries, and national sentiment in the 19th century and the impact of the failure of the revolutions of 1848 on the shape of modern Europe. A well-written history! less

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