Finally available in English to coincide with the 150th anniversary, this highly original study of the German Revolution of 1848-49 examines the "failure" of the revolution, its repression and the attempts to come to terms with this repression. Wolfram Siemann's analysis centers on the contradictory forms of collective protest, the tensions in the social, agrarian and commercial spheres, the nature of the crisis cycles of the Vormarz period, the different stages of development in individual German territories, and the regional centers of industrialization and politicization. It is against this backdrop that the "failure" of the revolution is put into perspective.

Hungary's War of Independence was the bloodiest conflict of a European revolutionary era. It excited nationalist passions that have not yet been stilled. The principal actor of the drama was the nobleman, Louis Kossuth. The story of the revolution of 1848, Hungary's most important historic event, is told here in terms of the towering personality of Louis Kossuth. In the spring of that year, Kossuth and his fellow noblemen seized the opportunity presented by the European revolutions to legally restore the sovereignty of the country under the Habsburg Crown. They also introduced many administrative, social and economic reforms. The goals of the reformers however ran into the opposition of the Habsburg Court, the new liberal Austrian government and the non-Magyar peoples of Hungary who feared Hungarian nationalism. In the ensuing war the country was led by Kossuth. The Hungarians lost the war and, in August 1849, Kossuth fled, never to return to his homeland. Louis Kossuth was a forceful, powerful governor-president of Hungary, the people's spokesman and hero but also the symbol of much that they considered calamitous in the national character. At once dynamic and forceful, but also hesitant and weak - he made great provisions for the wounded, veterans, women and orphans but also squandered the lives of his soldiers unnecessarily. He emancipated the peasants and the Jews and, though he died an impoverished exile, he remained a popular idol in Hungary, his name a symbol of the aspiration for independence. His legend grew with the years and was further cultivated after 1945, when Hungary had lost much of the independence for which Kossuth struggled.

Europe was swept by a wave of revolution in 1848 that had repercussions stretching well beyond the Continent. Governments fell in quick succession or conceded significant reforms, before being rolled back by conservative reaction. Though widely perceived as a failure, the revolution ended the vestiges of feudalism, broadened civil society and strengthened the state prior to the rapid industrialisation and urbanisation of the latter part of the nineteenth century. This volume brings together essays from leading specialists on the international dimension, national experiences, political mobilisation, reaction and legacy.

These essays arose out of lectures given in Oxford to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the 1848 revolutions in Europe. Authoritative, yet readable and colourful, they comprise judicicious summaries of the existing stte of knowledge, as well as new insights and unfamiliar information. Thebook also seeks to place the revolutionary events in their wider context: apart from chapters covering the main centres of disturbance in France, Germany, Italy, and the Habsburg lands, there are discussions of the situation in Britain and Russia, which were affected but not convulsed by thedisorders elsewhere; of reactions in the United States of America; of the symbolism of 1848 for the later democratic, radical, and socialist movements. 1848 marked the first breakdown of traditional authority across much of the continent, and as such is of profound significance in the developmentof modern European politics as a whole.

This book is among the rare contributions to the 150th anniversary of 1848 which takes a completely new, theoretically informed approach. Instead of a traditional social or political history, the authors analyse the dichotomy between the international dimension in the ideas of the revolution and the nationalisation of memories in its commemorations over the past 150 years. The book offers original research on the history of European ideas and takes part in the current debate about the relationship between history and memory.

Studies on exile in the 19th century tend to be restricted to national histories. This volume is the first to offer a broader view by looking at French, Italian, Hungarian, Polish, Czech and German political refugees who fled to England after the European revolutions of 1848/49. The contributors examine various aspects of their lives in exile such as their opportunities for political activities, the forms of political cooperation that existed between exiles from different European countries on the one hand and with organizations and politicians in England on the other and, finally, the attitude of the host country towards the refugees, and their perceptions of the country which had granted them asylum. Sabine Freitag is Research Fellow at the German Historical Institute in London. Rudolf Muhs is Lecturer in German History at the University of London (Royal Holloway).