Daniele Manin And The Venetian Revolution Of 1848 49

Daniele Manin (13 May 1804 ? 22 September 1857) was a venetian patriot and statesman from Venice. He is considered by many Italian historians a hero of Italian unification (Risorgimento)....The 1848 revolutions in the Italian states were organized revolts in the states of Italy led by intellectuals and agitators who desired a liberal government. As Italian nationalists they sought to eliminate reactionary Austrian control. During this time period, Italy was not a unified country, and was divided into many states, which, in Northern Italy, were ruled by the Austrian Empire. A desire to be free from foreign rule, and the conservative leadership of the Austrians, led the Italian people to stage revolution in order to drive out the Austrians. The revolution was led by the state of Piedmont, one of the four states where the Austrian leaders were forced to grant liberal rights. Also, the uprisings in the Kingdom of Lombardy?Venetia, particularly in Milan, forced the Austrian General Radetsky to retreat to the Quadrilatero fortresses."--Wikipedia.

These essays arose out of lectures given in Oxford to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the 1848 revolutions in Europe. Authoritative, yet readable and colourful, they comprise judicicious summaries of the existing stte of knowledge, as well as new insights and unfamiliar information. Thebook also seeks to place the revolutionary events in their wider context: apart from chapters covering the main centres of disturbance in France, Germany, Italy, and the Habsburg lands, there are discussions of the situation in Britain and Russia, which were affected but not convulsed by thedisorders elsewhere; of reactions in the United States of America; of the symbolism of 1848 for the later democratic, radical, and socialist movements. 1848 marked the first breakdown of traditional authority across much of the continent, and as such is of profound significance in the developmentof modern European politics as a whole.