{"version":"1.0","type":"rich","provider_name":"Acast","provider_url":"https://acast.com","height":250,"width":700,"html":"<iframe src=\"https://embed.acast.com/$/9a03fe9e-1ff0-4dcc-b3f6-50bd1f016ea4/61bad304ed66cf0012ba6560?\" frameBorder=\"0\" width=\"700\" height=\"250\"></iframe>","title":"1848 and All That","description":"<p>David and Helen talk to historian Chris Clark about the 1848 revolutions and what they teach us about political change. What explains the contagiousness of the revolutionary moment?&nbsp;Is it possible to combine parliamentary reform with street politics?&nbsp;Where does counter-revolution get its power? </p><p><br></p><p>The revolutions of 1848 started with a small civil war in Switzerland in 1847.</p><ul><li>In 1848, there was a cascade of simultaneous uprisings across the continent. There were the spring revolutions; then in the summer, the liberal and conservative wings began to fight each other.</li><li>In the autumn, counter revolutions began in earnest. But the left revived itself, launching revolution 2.0. Finally, in the summer of 1849, the counter revolution largely prevailed.</li></ul><p><br></p><p>These were revolutions about political and social order, but also about national order.</p><ul><li>The Hungarians, for example, declared independence from Vienna and fought not just against the Austrians but against a range of other nationalities.</li></ul><p><br></p><p>What accounts for the simultaneity of these revolutions?</p><ul><li>A continent-wide socio-economic crisis began with an agrarian crisis in 1845. Food became much more expensive at a time when people spent most of their money on food.</li><li>The agrarian crisis then triggered a downturn in trade and consumption.&nbsp;</li></ul><p><br></p><p>Why wasn’t there a revolution in Britain?&nbsp;</p><ul><li>One reason is that the country was so efficiently policed.</li><li>Another is that Britain was able to export potentially problematic people to the colonies.&nbsp;</li><li>The imperial economy also allowed them to outsource price-shock problems.</li></ul><p><br></p><p>The forces of counterrevolution were primarily those of monarchism and money.</p><ul><li>Europe already had an order, the order of 1815; monarchs wanted to restore it.</li><li>Revolutions are spontaneous, but counterrevolutionaries can bide their time strategically.</li><li>The liberal great powers didn’t support the revolutions, but the conservative ones supported the counter revolutions.</li><li>You can also read this as the death throes of the counterrevolutionary order. They won’t make common cause again.&nbsp;</li></ul><p><br></p><p>The revolutions of 1848 combined radical street politics with legislative politics. The institutional side of the revolution seemed to win.</p><ul><li>Constitutions proliferated after 1848.&nbsp;</li><li>The tense relationship between the street and representative processes is at the core of what these revolutions were about.&nbsp;&nbsp;</li></ul><p><br></p><p><br></p><ul><li><a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=782P0YcOOOQ\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Chris’ lecture on the 1848 revolutions for the LRB</a></li><li><a href=\"https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v41/n05/christopher-clark/why-should-we-think-about-the-revolutions-of-1848-now\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">And his LRB essay</a></li><li><a href=\"https://www.talkingpoliticspodcast.com/blog/2021/322-why-constitutions-matter\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">From our archives… Why Constitutions Matter with Linda Colley</a></li><li><a href=\"https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00yqvqt\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">In Our Time on the Taiping Rebellion</a></li><li><a href=\"https://play.acast.com/s/history-of-ideas/marxandengelsonrevolution\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Our History of Ideas series… Marx and Engels on Revolution</a></li><li><a href=\"https://play.acast.com/s/history-of-ideas/luxemburgonrevolution\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">And Rosa Luxemburg on Revolution</a></li><li><a href=\"https://www.talkingpoliticspodcast.com/blog/2019/182-talking-politics-guide-to-european-union-before-the-eu\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">The TP guide to… European Union before the EU</a></li></ul><p><br></p>","author_name":"David Runciman and Catherine Carr"}