Study questions on Gildea, Barricades and Borders, Chapters 4-5
Ch. 4
How does Gildea explain the wide-spread outbreak of revolutions across Europe in 1848? Is it fair to say that in each country there were really several revolutionary elements (a movement of liberals, a movement of radicals, etc) that for a time found common cause in a "united front"? Explain.
In general, what were the middle classes demanding in 1848? What were artisans demanding? Wage laborers? Peasants? Various ethnic groups that did not have their "own" states? Explain.
Was there a revolution in England in 1848? Explain. How about Belgium? Explain.
What country "set the mold" for revolution in 1848? Explain.
What events led to a revolutionary uprising in France in February 1848?
What was the political composition of the French provisional government of early Spring 1848?
In what sense had the revolution in Paris "transformed German politics" (p. 84)? How does Gildea explain the difference between the middle class' role in the revolutions in France and in the German kingdoms?
How did revolution effect Austria and Hungary in Spring 1848? Explain. What about the Italian states? Explain.
If the revolutions of Spring 1848 were all "victorious" because of mass support from the lower classes, what social class actually gained the most as a result?
What became of the "united fronts" once the revolutions had "succeeded" in Spring 1848? Why?
What became of constitutional rule in the Kingdom of Naples? Florence? How was the course of events initially different in the Papal States?
What led to the "June Days" in Paris, who was involved in this conflict, and what were the results?
Who supported Louis Napoleon Bonaparte's "Party of Order" in Fall-Winter 1848 and why? Who opposed LNB and why?
What happened to the German republican uprising of April 1848? What kinds of social divisions undercut the republican movement, and what allowed conservatives to regain power?
What kind of constitution did Fredrick William IV institute in Prussia one the revolution had been crushed? Explain.
What led to the defeat of the radicals in Austria in 1848?
Why did the middle class in Austria, Prussia, and France accept the idea of the restoration of conservative-monarchical rule after 1848?
How did Polish, Danish, Magyar, Slovak, Serb (etc etc) nationalists respond to the outbreak of revolution in 1848? What did they want and why?
Did the French revolutionary government stick by its promise to help oppressed nationalities? Explain. What were the results?
Why wasn't the Frankfurt Assembly able to create a unified German nation state in 1848?
Why did the movement for national unification in Italy also fail in 1848?
Did all nationalities in the Austrian Empire demand separate statehood? Explain.
How did conflicts between nationality groups undermine the revolution in Austria? What nationality groups were pitted against each other and why?
According to Gildea, what impact did 1848 have on the political nature of nationalism? For whom was nationalism now an effective political tool?
Ch. 5
I do not expect you to remember the names of every artist (etc) noted in this chapter, but I do want you to understand the "large" points that Gildea is making about early 19th century culture. Therefore my first (and main) question is: why is this chapter called "Hierarchies of Culture"?
Why was the issue of language of politically charged in the early 1800s? Were major states linguistically homogeneous? How was education tied to the project of nation building?
Why was the question of secular education so politically charged?
What new forms of leisure activity emerged in the early 1800s? Were these activities in which all of the public engaged, our did different social groups tend to engage in different sorts of leisure activities? In what sense were leisure activities political (or politicized)?
How does Gildea explain the revival of religion in the early 1800s? Where and among whom was this strongest and why? And how was politics (and the question of who has control of state power) linked to religious revival? Be sure to distinguish between trends among Catholics, Protestants, and the Greek and Russian Orthodox.
What does Gildea mean by "the rise of a disciplined society"? How was the relationship between the state and citizens changing and why? What new sorts of instruments of social control were in the hands of the state?
How did the educated public understand the causes of and the "solutions" for crime, poverty, and deviance?
What characterized Romanticism? Against what was it "revolting"? What seem to have been the core common characteristics of various Romantic movements in the arts?