1 Patrick Boucheron (dir.), Histoire mondiale de la France, Paris, Seuil, 2017. 2 See, for instance, Nicolas Bancel et al. (dir.), Histoire globale de la France coloniale, Paris, Ph (...) 3 The most relevant reference here is Sylvie Aprile, Jean-Claude Caron, Emmanuel Fureix (dir.), La li (...) 4 A recent exception is Silvia Cavicchioli, Giacomo Girardi (eds.), Sfida al Congresso di Vienna. Qua (...) 1The practice of collective writing has been among the most fruitful factors in renewing French historiography in recent years. The volume discussed here fits into the thread of histoires mondiales that followed the successful and much-debated Histoire mondiale de la France.1 These books assemble a range of medium-length essays authored by many scholars, conceived both as introductions to the topic for the general public and path-setting texts for new research.2 At the same time, the volume edited by Quentin Deluermoz, Emmanuel Fureix, and Clément Thibaud is part of an older tradition of collective works that re-analyse from innovative perspectives the classic dates or topics in the study of history.3 Without labelling this tendency as a French specificity, it can be safely stated that such books are less common in other national historiographies, e.g., Italy, maybe due also to teaching methods centred on lectures and leaving scarce room for class discussions about brief articles4. Besides their didactic merits, these collective endeavours stimulate specialists’ debates and inject fresh vitality into research.

5 Eric J. Hobsbawm, The Age of Capital, 1848-1875, New York, Scribner, 1975; Jürgen Osterhammel, The (...) 2This is precisely the case with Les mondes de 1848. Originating from a conference in Paris in 2018, the book gathers twenty-seven contributions by authors from Europe, America, and Australia. The editors’ introduction ties together all the chapters by setting the book’s objective, i.e., revising the accepted notion that the 1848 revolutions were exclusively European. Such received wisdom is represented no less than by Eric Hobsbawm and Jürgen Osterhammel.5 Still, while aiming at such prestigious targets, the editors adopt a balanced stance rather than an iconoclastic one. They do not intend to overthrow the established understanding of 1848, nor to « désexceptionnaliser » the revolutionary wave of 1848-1849 in the Old Continent (p. 27). Instead, they believe that a global perspective, notably through the study of connections, can complement and expand the traditional interpretation of 1848 as the European springtime of the peoples.

This attitude underpins the book’s structure, which is organised into four parts. The first one proposes to « déseuropéaniser 1848 » (tellingly, with a question mark in the title). It refuses diffusionist visions –from Europe to the world– and investigates circulations on a more complex and global scale, focusing on non-European contexts, dynamics, and exchanges (as it is done, for instance, by Claire Fredj on Algeria and Sujit Sivasundaram on the Indian Ocean). The second part examines the flows of revolutionary experiences, ideas, and languages, and it brings to light some non-European perspectives on the springtime of the people. For instance, Jorge Myers and Edward Blumenthal focus on some Latin American intellectuals and exiles that saw Europe not as the forerunner of progress but as a backward continent finally moving toward republican institutions. Furthermore, this section provides insights into the worldwide repercussions of the European 1848, as in Paul Pickering’s piece on Oceania and Hélène Quanquin’s one on the reuse of 1848 by the US feminist-abolitionist groups.

This same approach returns in the third part, devoted to abolitionism –see, for example, Julie Marquet’s essay on the consequences of universal male suffrage and the abolition of slavery on the cast society and work market in the oft-neglected France’s Indian outposts, and Natalia Sobrevilla’s piece on how 1848 catalysed the abolition in the Spanish American republics. Three articles (by Myriam Cottias, Adélaïde Marine-Gougeon, and Jessica Balguy) are dedicated to former enslavers, their mobility, their commitment to imperial projects, and the crucial topic of indemnities. Finally, the fourth section traces the « echos, reverberations, and clues » of 1848 in contexts that, at first glance, were not affected by disorders, as Russia, Walachia, and Brazil (treated, respectively, by Jonathan Beecher, James Morris, and Andre Jockyman Roithmann). Engaging with the case of Cuba, Romy Sánchez points to how, in the Spanish colony, the revolutionary wave triggered police concerns rather than actual conspiracies, and only a few moderate exiles tried to seize the global revolutionary conjuncture to promote reforms or the island’s annexation to the US as a slave state.

As this quick overview shows, the subject of circulations –and their limits– is addressed with sophistication. In a world « à la fois interconnecté et désynchronisé » (p. 339), news of the European uprisings reached other regions of the world with weeks or months delay, and this « distance temporelle » (p. 43) induced various interpretations and readaptations of ideas and images. Moreover, the volume pays attention to conceptions of emancipation that were alternative to revolutionary and democratic ones, like the « élan messianique » (p. 208) sparked by the election of Pope Pius IX, described by Ignazio Veca.

6 The importance of memories of previous revolutions for the 1848 upheavals is stressed by David A. B (...) 6Overall, the book is rich, multifaceted, and convincing, especially when it analyses the impact of the European 1848 in other continents. It carefully considers local conditions and pays particular attention to the imperial frame, « vecteur de choix pour la globalisation des répertoires d’idées et d’actions » (p. 341). Among others, an aspect that some contributions mention and could be further explored is the issue of memory, both in and of 1848. Inquiring into past models employed in 1848 and analysing later references to the events of that year could integrate it into a longer global history of revolutions.6

7 Simon Sarlin, Le légitimisme en armes. Histoire d’une mobilisation internationale contre l’unité it (...) 8 Cristopher Clark, « After 1848: The European revolution in government », Transactions of the Royal (...) 7Also from a political point of view, the paths opened by this book deserve to be continued and developed. Simply put, the history ‘of the left’ is well covered, with articles on revolutions, abolitionism, and feminism. On the reverse, the history ‘of the right’ emerges less, despite the recent historiographic interest in transnational reactionary networks.7 Nor will one find much history ‘of the centre’. Yet, as Christopher Clark argued, the long-lasting impact of the 1848 European revolutions consisted in the accession to power of centrist coalitions, which ousted the political wings and deployed limited reforms8. Legitimists and conservatives might provide the ground for extending the research for global patterns in and after 1848.

Beyond these possible expansions, a broader question remains, which could be distilled into a grammatical issue: singular or plural? Indeed, even if the volume title is Les mondes de 1848 and « la pluralité des mondes de 1848 » is recalled until the last page (p. 343), formulas like « un 1848 global » (p. 19, 43) and « le moment 1848 » (p. 125, 144, 219, 273) appear throughout the text, where one can find references to both « les mondes » (p. 133, 155) and « le monde » (p. 339) of 1848. In sum, it may be challenging to make a synthesis out of these singulars and plurals, and there could be some uncertainty about whether the various contributions in the book deal with a single 1848 moment or multiple 1848 moments. In their introduction and conclusion, the editors suggest reconsidering 1848 as a coherent event in world history, at the crosspoint of different historical dynamics and evolutions (abolitionism, capitalism, imperialism, nationalism, migrations, the development of communications, social and political movements). The volume sketches the contours of this global 1848 moment through connections to the 1848 European revolutions, which still hold a central place.

However, the book presents a plurality of views, which the editors acknowledge and embrace. Besides analyses of connections, it also includes articles on simultaneous events « qui ont lieu au même moment, sans être liées directement aux révolutions de 1848, et qui se rencontrent de manière collatérale » (p. 20), such as the Ethiopian troubles studied by Éloi Ficquet. The two approaches can even coexist in the same article. M’hamed Oualdi’s piece on the abolition of slavery in the Arab-Muslim world, for instance, explores the impact of the 1848 French abolition in Algeria and describes the contemporary abolitionist process in the surrounding Ottoman regencies –happening under British pressure and over a longer period. Therefore, the overall impression is of several 1848 moments, not necessarily related to the European 1848 nor less exceptional in their historical impact. It is the case of the North American 1848. This « autre 1848 », as Emmanuelle Perez-Tisserant calls it (p. 57), englobes the beginning of the Gold Rush, US expansion toward the Pacific, and the war against Mexico. As shown by Benoît Agnès, Edoardo Frezet, and Soazig Villerbu in their pieces on the circulations of people and ideas between Europe and the US, the different 1848 moments can be linked to one another. Still, they respond mainly to independent developments. A larger reliance on comparative methods –along with connections– might have proved productive in revealing similarities and recurring patterns.

The book offers an alternative interpretative proposition to solve the aporia between one and more global moments 1848. In the first chapter, Megan Maruschke and Mattias Middell advance the hypothesis that 1848 represents a crucial moment in the processes of globalisation and re-spatialisation, i.e., the intensification of global connections and the reorganisation of the world in imperial nation-states. Less cautious than the editors, they challenge Europe’s centrality more overtly and put forward a paradigm to look at 1848 from a wholly global and unitary perspective. No longer tracing direct connections to the European springtime of the people, their account encompasses the Taiping and Sepoys revolts, the American Civil War, the Crimean conflict, the Opium wars, the Italian and German unifications, up to the Amerindian uprisings in Mexico studied by Regina Lira, and the projects of non-sovereign colonisation investigated by Clément Thibaud. Yet, globalisation and the imperial-national re-spatialisation span at least from the mid-eighteenth to mid-twentieth century. The 1848 moment might well become unitary and global, but 1848 itself appears diluted as a specific date. As Deluermoz, Fureix, and Thibaud wrote, « toutes ces évolutions imbriquées expliquent la possibilité de penser un ‘1848 global’. Reste à savoir ce dont il s’agit » (p. 15). The question is still open.

9 Id., Revolutionary Spring: Europe Aflame and the Fight for a New World, 1848-1849, London, Allen La (...) 11None of the above should detract from the book’s remarkable contributions. It raises crucial issues, displays various historiographic standpoints, and will elicit further discussions and research. In a context of renewed interest in 1848,9 Les mondes de 1848 is an outstanding volume, disclosing original perspectives and avenues for research. It is a compelling reading for those interested in global phenomena or extra-European areas, and it also provides historians of Europe sensu stricto with promising hints. For example, Fabrice Bensimon proposes a new periodisation of Chartism by looking at it in an enlarged context, and Alp Yücel Kaya’s article on peasants’ revolts in the Balkans might encourage historians of Europe to include rural spaces in their primarily urban narrative of 1848. Finally, the book shows how, on a global scale, the importance of nationalism in 1848 should be relativised, and this could inspire researchers to consider more carefully some factors that have been overshadowed by the centrality accorded to the national element in Europe. In all these directions and many more, Les mondes de 1848 can be a new starting point for the historiography on 1848.

<footnote n="1">1 Patrick Boucheron (dir.), Histoire mondiale de la France, Paris, Seuil, 2017.</footnote>

<footnote n="2">2 See, for instance, Nicolas Bancel et al. (dir.), Histoire globale de la France coloniale, Paris, Philippe Rey, 2022; Quentin Deluermoz (ed.), D’ici et d’ailleurs: histoires globales de la France contemporaine (XVIIIe-XXe siècle), Paris, La Découverte, 2021; Jean-Numa Ducange, Razmig Keucheyan, Stéphanie Roza (dir.), Histoire globale des socialismes, XIXe-XXIe siècles, Paris, PUF, 2021; Pierre Singaravélou (ed.), Colonisations. Notre histoire, Paris, Seuil, 2023.</footnote>

<footnote n="3">3 The most relevant reference here is Sylvie Aprile, Jean-Claude Caron, Emmanuel Fureix (dir.), La liberté guidant les peuples. Les révolutions de 1830 en Europe, Seyssel, Champ Vallon, 2013.</footnote>

<footnote n="4">4 A recent exception is Silvia Cavicchioli, Giacomo Girardi (eds.), Sfida al Congresso di Vienna. Quadri internazionali e cultura politica nell’Italia delle rivoluzioni del 1820-21, Rome, Carocci, 2023.</footnote>

<footnote n="5">5 Eric J. Hobsbawm, The Age of Capital, 1848-1875, New York, Scribner, 1975; Jürgen Osterhammel, The Transformation of the World. A Global History of the Nineteenth Century, Princeton-Oxford, Princeton University Press, 2014.</footnote>

<footnote n="6">6 The importance of memories of previous revolutions for the 1848 upheavals is stressed by David A. Bell, «A Shower of Sparks. The year Europe revolted», The Nation, 31 October 2023: https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/1848-revolutionary-spring-christopher-clark/ (accessed on 11 June 2024). On the memory of 1848 in Europe, see Jean-Claude Caron, « Printemps des peuples : pour une autre lecture des révolutions de 1848 », Revue d’Histoire du XIXe siècle, 52, 2016, pp. 31-45.</footnote>

<footnote n="7">7 Simon Sarlin, Le légitimisme en armes. Histoire d’une mobilisation internationale contre l’unité italienne, Rome, École française de Rome, 2013.</footnote>

<footnote n="8">8 Cristopher Clark, « After 1848: The European revolution in government », Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 22, 2012, pp. 171-197.</footnote>

<footnote n="9">9 Id., Revolutionary Spring: Europe Aflame and the Fight for a New World, 1848-1849, London, Allen Lane, 2023.</footnote>