The notion of a "Springtime of European Peoples," the concept of a universal republic and the awareness of a European dimension to revolutionary events all had an important impact on the ideas of 1848 and were reflected in songs, pamphlets, and political statements. However, the meanings of 1848--its historical and memories--changed over time. In most commemorations, the revolution has appeared as a national event, a perspective which changed only in 1998, on the occasion of the 150th anniversary. This book analyzes the dichotomy between the international dimension of the revolution's ideas...

This book is among the rare contributions to the 150th anniversary of 1848 which takes a completely new, theoretically informed approach. Instead of a traditional social or political history, the authors analyse the dichotomy between the international dimension in the ideas of the revolution and the nationalisation of memories in its commemorations over the past 150 years. The book offers original research on the history of European ideas and takes part in the current debate about the relationship between history and memory.

Contains chapters on theatre and opera, architecture and urban planning, the medieval revival and the rediscovery of the Etruscan and Roman past. This book analyses Italians' changing relationship to their nation state and the monarchy, the conflicts betwe

Why has "America" - that is, the United States of America - become so much more than simply a place in the imagination of so many people around the world? In both Europe and Latin America, the United States has often been a site of multiple possible futures, a screen onto which could be projected utopian dreams and dystopian nightmares. Whether castigated as a threat to civilized order or championed as a promise of earthly paradise, America has invariably been treated as a cipher for modernity. It has functioned as an inescapable reference point for both European and Latin American societies,...

Why has "America" - that is, the United States of America - become so much more than simply a place in the imagination of so many people around the world? In both Europe and Latin America, the United States has often been a site of multiple possible futures, a screen onto which could be projected utopian dreams and dystopian nightmares. Whether castigated as a threat to civilized order or championed as a promise of earthly paradise, America has invariably been treated as a cipher for modernity. It has functioned as an inescapable reference point for both European and Latin American societies,...