To begin with, let's deal with the names of those various authors you mentioned in the title. This is a review of three books by three different authors. "The French Revolution" was written by Adrian Gilbert, "1848: The Year of Revolution" Was by R.G. Grant, and "The Easter Rising" was written by Richard Killeen. Glad that's out of the way. You should always acknowledge the author(s).
This series was incredibly informative. You found these books in the kids' history section of your local library and you already reviewed the one about the Russian Revolution. You went back to the library and picked out a few more books on the revolutions you knew the least about; one on the French Revolution in 1789, one about the insane year of 1848 in Europe, and another about the Irish revolt of 1916. Let's tackle them in chronological order, shall we?
The French Revolution was fascinating. It was far more complicated than you'd realized (sort of a theme in these reviews, eh?). After King Louis was deposed, the Revolution fractured into competing parties, each seemingly more concerned with their own influence and power than with securing the ideals of the revolution. Things quickly got bloody, with one group even calling it's own push to secure power "The Terror." As bloody as this part of the French Revolution was, the wars being fought to fend off foreign powers sensing weakness and invading France from outside were even bloodier. But after all the bloodshed and the invasions and the power grabs and the guillotines, Napoleon seized control and plunged the entire continent into war. After his defeat at Waterloo in 1815, the European powers restored the French monarchy and the people of France ended up right back where they had been before the Bastille had fallen, with a powerful monarchy in charge and the upper classes having too much power over the poor. The French Revolution was inspired by the American Revolution (both intellectually and by nature of the fact the France's economy was wrecked by the debt she'd accrued supporting the colonies against Britain) but ultimately, it was the French Revolution that changed the world. This was not a colony or even a band of united states throwing off the rule of a distant empire. This was an old, established citizenry doing the unthinkable, throwing down a king and choosing their own form of government. The French Revolution taught the people of the world that they didn't have to suffer under despotism and oppression. The world would never be the same after this.
The year 1848 in Europe was so chaotic that many historians and authors refer to it simply as the "Year of Revolution." It all started in Paris when a crowd was celebrating the French king's decision to replace his government with one that was slightly more democratic. The celebrating crowd was confronted by King Louis Phillipe's soldiers. In the confusion of the moment, someone fired a shot and then so did everyone else. Before anyone could stop the firing, there was a massacre. This single event, an accident, a misunderstanding, an easily avoidable mistake sparked a chain reaction that spread through all of Europe. Soon the people of France, Austria, and what we now call Germany, Italy, Czechoslovakia, and Hungary were in full revolt. It wouldn't be until August of the next year before the last revolt was defeated. Germany and Italy at the time were divided into smaller kingdoms, fiefdoms, princedoms, protectorates, territories, and city states while much of central and eastern Europe was controlled by the Austrian empire. These monarchies cracked down hard on the spreading insurrections in an attempt to hold onto their seats of power. On both sides, heroes were made while others were condemned as butchers. Somehow, France was the only revolution during this time to rid its people of their ruling, hereditary monarchy.
The details of every revolution and invasion, every lofty declaration signed and every glorious battle fought during this tremendous year are too dizzying to relate here. You'll have to read a big kid book about this fascinating time to learn more and keep all the details straight, but here are a few things to remember. 1) Revolutions almost never turn out the way the people who started them wanted them too. What starts off as ideological demands for equality and representation or as practical demands for grater distribution of food and wealth, often ends up in squabbling and infighting. Revolutions are awesome (in the original meaning of the word) and inspiring and powerful, but they are difficult beasts to tame. They are often the breeding grounds for extraordinary unintended consequences. The events of the Year of Revolution are what inspired the philosophy of a man named Karl Marx. Soon after he would join with his colleague, Joseph Engels, to write the Communist Manifesto. 2) Most of the revolutions during this time were put down due to one simple factor. None of them were united with one another. This piecemeal approach to revolution allowed the forces of the European monarchies to treat one huge, popular movement as a series of small inconvenient incidents. This allowed them to use their armies to their advantage and concentrate their forces as was needed every time a new insurrection reared its head. Had the various movements, the disjointed forces of revolution banded together under one banner, they would have overwhelmed the armies of the monarchies. 3) When it comes to controlling or influencing a population, the middle class is the key. In every instance during 1848, the revolutionaries had the support, however fleeting, of the middle class. The moment they lost that support, their uprisings died. To quote the book,
"The middle classes' desire for change led them into an alliance with the workers and the poor, who also wanted to overthrow the system. But in the end the interests of these two groups were completely different. The poor and the hungry had nothing to lose from disorder, whereas the middle classes feared for their property and wanted order restored as soon as possible. The workers wanted social change to give themselves better food and housing and more control over their own lives. But this could only be at the expense of the middle class factory owners and business men who profited from cheap labor. The middle class liberals were happy to exploit popular uprisings to win concessions from the conservative rulers. But later they would support the use of force against the people to restore order."
The Irish Revolt of 1916, called the Easter Rising, was on a much smaller scale than the subjects of the other books in the "Revolution!" series but that doesn't meant that it was without some interesting lessons as well. Fought over the course of five days in April in Dublin, the uprising was hopeless from its first moments. Only a few hundred dedicated Irish fighters fought against British soldiers led by General Maxwell, who had recently returned from successfully defending the Suez Canal from hordes of screaming Turkish soldiers during WWI. The fighting devastated central Dublin and featured bombardment of the city by artillery as well as a British cruiser sailing up the Liffey River. It was also the first time the Irish tricolor flag (green, white, and red) had flown over the capital city of Ireland. Even though their cause was hopeless, and most of the population was not behind them, the sacrifice and the passion of the men who fought (and mostly died) in the Easter Rising inspired most of the rest of the nation to consider independence from English rule (they had managed to get the elusive middle class to support them!). Within four years, the Irish Free State was recognized by the government of Great Britain and to this day, the Irish tricolor still flies over Dublin.
As the Arab Spring (are we still calling it that even though it started in the spring two years ago?) continues to occupy significant headline space in the world's news sites (or newspapers, if you prefer) the republican heart that beats in your chest cheers every new uprising. Soon, this series of books should do an "Arab Spring" edition. The lessons of this series are complicated and far reaching and are still applicable today. There are no easy answers, but you are sure of a two things. Revolutions are messy and rarely go the way they were planned, but, however dangerous it might be, it is almost always a good thing when people rise up and shake off their oppressors. Freedom and Justice will never be reached by conserving the status quo. Changing the world requires bold action. It takes work, it takes sacrifice, and sometimes it takes a revolution!
On to the next book!
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