Revolution And Reaction

Explains how bold efforts at profound progressive change provoked a powerful reactionary backlash that led to the imposition of brutal, regressive dictatorships.

This book, first published in 1975, examines the events of the French Second Republic, the themes of protest and repression in particular. It analyses how popular discontent is mobilised and becomes political protest and revolution, and how the machinery of government operates in a crisis situation.

Discussion of revolutions in European history and the impact on politics in Colonial America.

An engaging range of period texts and theme books for AS and A Level history. In many ways the period 1789-1849 saw the birth of the modern world, as the people of Europe grappled with the impact of the new political and social ideas, rapid population growth and the acceleration of the industrialisation. The clash between the forces of change and of conservatism provoked crisis, war, revolution and reaction. Andrew Matthews provides a lively and intelligent account. In chapters that focus on the French Revolution, Napoleon, Restoration France, Metternich's Europe and the 1848 revolutions, he considers the key individuals, groups and political, social and economic pressures that produced so much revolution, repression and war.

A study of the economic and social changes which shaped the movement for German unification. The author emphasizes the effect of industrialism on urban life, traces the decline of manorialism in agriculture and seeks to show that the political movements of these years were profoundly influenced by the economic transition from agrarianism to capitalism.