In late 2022, historian and fp columnist Adam Tooze captured the zeitgeist when he wrote that the world is in the midst of a “polycrisis” — a time when “the shocks are disparate, but they interact so that the whole is even more overwhelming than the sum of the parts.”
History is littered with such periods. Some we remember because they preceded revolutionary change. Others are less well known because revolutionary change did not occur, even if those who lived through them experienced great upheaval; these periods, to paraphrase historian G.M. Trevelyan, are turning points at which history fails to turn.
1848—the year to which Trevelyan was referring—is one such failed turning point. Although that year saw political tumult across Europe, it does not receive as much attention as junctures such as 1789 or 1945. Yet, as historian Christopher Clark’s magisterial Revolutionary Spring: Europe Aflame and the Fight for a New World, 1848-1849 makes clear, the long-term consequences of that year were profound.
His book serves as are minder that if we want to understand why some periods of (poly)crisis lead to change, while others do not, it is every bit as important to closely examine the
