Revolutions Summary and Analysis

Hobsbawm identifies three main waves of revolutions in Europe between 1815 and 1848. The first wave is in the 1820s in several Mediterranean countries. Except for Greece, these are suppressed. The second wave comes in the 1830s and is "more serious," affecting western Europe and Britain with upheaval in Ireland, Poland, Belgium and France. This period is a turning point in Hobsbawm's larger assessment. He argues that 1830 marks an end to aristocratic political power the emergence of a self-identified working class.

In 1848, a nearly worldwide third wave of revolutions breaks out affecting most regions of Europe. As opposed to revolutions before Napoleon, all of these revolutions are "planned." Hobsbawm claims that secret revolutionary groups such as the Carbonari in southern Italy are typical. These groups eventually become split along geographical and ideological grounds, but they have several things in common. They all see...