The idea of a 'Springtime of European Peoples', concepts of a universal republic and the awareness for the European dimension of the revolutionary events had an important impact on the ideas of 1848. They were reflected in songs, pamphlets and political statements. However, the meanings of 1848 - its histories and memories - change over time and according to different political, regional and national contexts. The initial idealism was soon replaced by nationalist aggressiveness. In most commemorations, the revolution appeared as a national event within the national histories of nation-states. This perspective only changed in 1998, on the occasion of its 150 years' anniversary, when historians, poiiticains and the public rediscovered 1848 as a European revolution, legitimising the rescue of the nation-state. 1848: A European Revolution? analyses the dichotomy between the international dimension within the ideas of the revolution and the nationalisation of memories in its commemorations over the past 150 years.
Acknowledgements
Notes on Contributors
PART I: INTRODUCTION
The European Dimension in the Ideas of 1848 and the Nationalization of Its Memories; A.Körner
PART II: A EUROPEAN PERSPECTIVE ON 1848
1848: Connected or Comparable Revolutions?; J.Breuilly
Events and Non-Events...Cultural Reflections of and on 1848; M.Swales
Did Women Have a Revolution? Gender Battles in the European Revolution of 1848/49; G.Hauch
PART III: INTERNATIONALISM AND NATIONALISM IN THE EUROPEAN REVOLUTION
Ideas and Memories of 1848 in France: Nationalism, République Universelle and Internationalism in the Goguette between 1848 and 1890; A.Körner
National Union or Cosmopolitan Unity? Republican Discourse and the Instrumental Approach towards the German Question; S.Freitag
Bohemian Spring 1848 - Conflict of Loyalties and Its Picture in Historiography; J.Havránek
PART IV: COMMEMORATIONS OF 1848 IN NATIONAL CONTEXT
From Divided Memory to Silence - The 1848 Celebrations in Italy; S.Soldani
First Performances - Staging Memories of the French February Revolution; R.L.Spang
'Nationality Separates, Liberty Unites'? The Historical Commemoration of 1848/49 in Baden, a European Frontier Region; J.Merk
PART V: CONCLUSION
How European Was the Revolution of 1848/49?; R.Koselleck
Index
AXEL KÖRNER is Lecturer in Modern European History at University College London. After studies in Bonn, Berlin and Lyon he wrote a PhD at the European University Institute in Florence. His publications include Das Lied von einer anderen Welt. Kulturelle Praxis im französischen und deutschen Arbeitermilieu. 1840-1890 (Frankfurt am Main, 1997) and (together with C.Gerbel et al) Urbane Eliten und kultureller Wandel. Bologna, Leipzig, Linz und Ljubljana (Vienna, 1996). He is currently working on a cultural history of Bologna between 1860 and 1920.
Description
The idea of a 'Springtime of European Peoples', concepts of a universal republic and the awareness for the European dimension of the revolutionary events had an important impact on the ideas of 1848. They were reflected in songs, pamphlets and political statements. However, the meanings of 1848 - its histories and memories - change over time and according to different political, regional and national contexts. The initial idealism was soon replaced by nationalist aggressiveness. In most commemorations, the revolution appeared as a national event within the national histories of nation-states. This perspective only changed in 1998, on the occasion of its 150 years' anniversary, when historians, poiiticains and the public rediscovered 1848 as a European revolution, legitimising the rescue of the nation-state. 1848: A European Revolution? analyses the dichotomy between the international dimension within the ideas of the revolution and the nationalisation of memories in its commemorations over the past 150 years.
Contents
Acknowledgements
Notes on Contributors
PART I: INTRODUCTION
The European Dimension in the Ideas of 1848 and the Nationalization of Its Memories; A.Körner
PART II: A EUROPEAN PERSPECTIVE ON 1848
1848: Connected or Comparable Revolutions?; J.Breuilly
Events and Non-Events...Cultural Reflections of and on 1848; M.Swales
Did Women Have a Revolution? Gender Battles in the European Revolution of 1848/49; G.Hauch
PART III: INTERNATIONALISM AND NATIONALISM IN THE EUROPEAN REVOLUTION
Ideas and Memories of 1848 in France: Nationalism, République Universelle and Internationalism in the Goguette between 1848 and 1890; A.Körner
National Union or Cosmopolitan Unity? Republican Discourse and the Instrumental Approach towards the German Question; S.Freitag
Bohemian Spring 1848 - Conflict of Loyalties and Its Picture in Historiography; J.Havránek
PART IV: COMMEMORATIONS OF 1848 IN NATIONAL CONTEXT
From Divided Memory to Silence - The 1848 Celebrations in Italy; S.Soldani
First Performances - Staging Memories of the French February Revolution; R.L.Spang
'Nationality Separates, Liberty Unites'? The Historical Commemoration of 1848/49 in Baden, a European Frontier Region; J.Merk
PART V: CONCLUSION
How European Was the Revolution of 1848/49?; R.Koselleck
Index
Authors
AXEL KÖRNER is Lecturer in Modern European History at University College London. After studies in Bonn, Berlin and Lyon he wrote a PhD at the European University Institute in Florence. His publications include Das Lied von einer anderen Welt. Kulturelle Praxis im französischen und deutschen Arbeitermilieu. 1840-1890 (Frankfurt am Main, 1997) and (together with C.Gerbel et al) Urbane Eliten und kultureller Wandel. Bologna, Leipzig, Linz und Ljubljana (Vienna, 1996). He is currently working on a cultural history of Bologna between 1860 and 1920.
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