A Sense of a European Present and its Passing during the Revolutions of 1848

Bibliographic Data

ID11005128
AuthorsJames O Morris (0000-0002-9782-430X, University College London, corresponding author)
Year2024
Volume2
Pages135-155
Publication date2024-12-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueTransactions of the Royal Historical Society (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0080-4401 • E-ISSN: 1474-0648
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s008044012400001x
OpenAlexW4393054427
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited17

This article explores the temporality of revolution in 1848. It argues that what united the various revolutionary movements of that year was a sense of participating in a common European ‘present’, in which old imperial hierarchies collapsed and every cause and people seemed to exist in the same historical moment. The significance of that sense of the present was visible across the continent, but it was of greatest significance in the revolutionary theatres beyond the core imperial centres, and it was those places that would suffer first when that present passed. Too much ‘history’ was taking place at once, and as events in different settings followed their own particular courses, minds turned away from a European project. As European unity faltered, it was the representatives of imperial counter-revolution who demonstrated their ability to think strategically on a continent-wide level. They defeated the various movements, which had promised a better European present, and deferred improvements to the future. By doing so, they returned the peoples of the continent to their own particular – rather than common European – ‘nows’

Electrical engineering · Sense (electronics · Central European national history · Computer Science · Engineering · European Political History Analysis · Historical Geopolitical and Social Dynamics · History

Tools

Open DOIOpen Access