The article “Comparing the European Revolutions of 1848 and 1989” was written by Robert Justin Goldstein, “a research associate at the Center for Russian and East European Studies at the University of Michigan” (Goldstein, 2007, p. 155) and published in a journal “Science” in October 2007. In the following article, the author discusses similarities between the factors that led to the European revolutions of 1848 and 1989 and the outcomes of the latter. Goldstein emphasizes that the revolutionary years mentioned above were especially crucial for modern world history since they, in fact, simultaneously affected several European countries and led to the change of governments and political regimes in the latter.
In the article mentioned above, the author claims that, though the European revolutions that broke out in 1848 and 1989 had many differences, there were also much in common between the factors that caused them and the patterns of their development. In particular, Goldstein (2007) claims that, in both cases, the most important causes of the revolutions were political grievances and repressions that presupposed strict censorship and prohibition of political opposition (p.155). Besides, before the riots started, most European countries experienced severe economic crises characterized by low living standards, poverty, unemployment, and a considerable gap between the levels of income of different strata of society. Besides, the middle of the nineteenth century, just like the end of the twentieth century, was the time of developing nationalist sentiment in different parts of Europe. Finally, both revolutions had their leaders, among them being Popes, who had a significant impact on political scenarios. Goldstein (2007) also mentions that the revolutions of 1848 and 1989 started with mass demonstrations for political and civil liberties that triggered a chain of transformations in most countries with the old regimes destroyed and new ones established.
Though the author provides a detailed analysis of the events that occurred during the times of the European revolutions of 1848 and 1989, they use almost no sources to support their claims and provide substantial evidence to their arguments. In fact, even when presenting some statistical data, the author does not make any references to the sources from which the information is taken. Besides, the author provides no list of the used sources. The only source Goldstein mentions in the article is a book by Rudolf Stadelmann, “Social and Political History of the German 1848 Revolution,” which is a secondary source presenting an overview of the events that happened during the revolts of 1848. The author also inserts the quotes of such outstanding people ad Emperor Ferdinand of Austria, Pope Pius IX, and Sardinian King Charles Albert, that can be viewed as primary sources. However, as has been mentioned previously, Goldstein provides no sources that could prove that particular words really belong to these people. The absence of the works cited list and of references to the information provided in the article makes one cast doubt on the relevance of the arguments expresses by the author and the credibility of the study in general.
One of the historical debates mentioned in the following article is the one concerning the causes of both revolutions and the roles of particular personalities in their development. In particular, the author emphasizes that, in both cases, Popes had considerable power and controlled the changes occurring in the course of the revolutions. Besides, the author focuses on the factors that led to the fall of the Soviet Union after 1989 and claims that the latter was unable to compete with the hegemony of Easter Europe (Goldstein, 2007, p. 159). However, it is difficult to determine a specific historical discussion to which the author makes a considerable contribution since the article instead presents a theoretical overview of the events that happened in 1848 and 1989.
The article is useful because it presents a detailed comparative analysis of the factors that led to the European revolutions of 1848 and 1989, the key events of the latter, and the political changes that occurred in the result of these revolts. More than that, the author discusses not only similarities but also differences between the two revolutions that allows one to reconstruct a comparatively full picture of the historical events. Therefore, the article can be useful for both historians and the general audience willing to learn more about the European historical process.
- Goldstein, R. J. (2007). Comparing the European Revolutions of 1848 and 1989. Society, 44(6), 155–159.
