The 1848 Revolutions

About this Course

About the Course

In this course, Dr Michael Rapport (University of Glasgow) explores the series of revolutions that arose in Europe in 1848-49. We begin by considering the medium- to long-term origins of the 1848 Revolutions, thinking in particular about the international order within Europe after the Napoleonic Wars and the Congress of Vienna. In the second module, we think about the dynamics of the revolutions as they took place, before turning in the third, fourth and fifth modules to look at specific aspects of the revolutions in specific geographical regions—nationalism in Germany and Italy, ethnic divisions in the Habsburg Empire, and social inequality in France. In the final module, we shift our attention from the revolutionaries to the conservatives, thinking about why it was that those that lost power so dramatically in the early months of 1848 were able to strike back so quickly and effectively.

About the Lecturer

Dr Michael Rapport is a Reader in Modern European History at the University of Glasgow. His research interests include, firstly, the French Revolution (both within France and in pursuit of its wider geographical impact), secondly, the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars and, thirdly, the ‘domino’ revolutions, meaning such revolutionary waves as those of 1848 in Europe.

Michael was born in New York, but studied History at the University of Edinburgh, undertook his PhD thesis on the French Revolution at the University of Bristol (under the supervision of Professor William Doyle) and, after a short spell at the University of Sunderland, taught at the University of Stirling for seventeen years before joining the School of Humanities at Glasgow in February 2013.