What is Revolutions of 1848?

1848 was a year in which numerous revolutions broke out across Europe, and subsequently failed. Nationalist Italians had embarked on a nation-building enterprise, which did not succeed, and many nationalist intellectuals experienced the crushing disappointment of watching their ideals be shattered. Mishra writes of numerous literary and historical examples of men for whom 1848 changed a great deal: it turned even liberal-minded thinkers into cynics.