Distant Revolutions: 1848 and the Challenge to American Exceptionalism

Jeffersonian America

by Timothy Mason Roberts

Distant 1848 and the Challenge to American Exceptionalism is a study of American politics, culture, and foreign relations in the mid-nineteenth century, illuminated through the reactions of Americans to the European revolutions of 1848. Flush from the recent American military victory over Mexico, many Americans celebrated news of democratic revolutions breaking out across Europe as a further sign of divine providence. Others thought that the 1848 revolutions served only to highlight how America’s own revolution had not done enough in the way of reform. Still other Americans renounced the 1848 revolutions and the thought of trans-atlantic unity because they interpreted European revolutionary radicalism and its portents of violence, socialism, and atheism as dangerous to the unique virtues of the United States.When the 1848 revolutions failed to create stable democratic governments in Europe, many Americans declared that their own revolutionary tradition was superior; American reform would be gradual and peaceful. Thus, when violence erupted over the question of territorial slavery in the 1850s, the effect was magnified among antislavery Americans, who reinterpreted the menace of slavery in light of the revolutions and counter-revolutions of Europe. For them a new revolution in America could indeed be necessary, to stop the onset of authoritarian conditions and to cure American exemplarism. The Civil War, then, when it came, was America’s answer to the 1848 revolutions, a testimony to America’s democratic shortcomings, and an American version of a violent, nation-building revolution.

Genres: History

272 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2009

Reviews

[floodofpages · Rating 4 out of 5]

Starting from the early nineteenth century, revolutions appeared almost in every sphere. For many American and French revolutionaries, these are direct influences of the late eighteenth-century revolutions we see. In this work, Robert directly analyzes the reactions of American revolutionaries to the nineteenth-century Hungarian and Italian Revolutions. In certain pages, we see mentions of Greek and Haitian cases; however, most of the work revolves around Lajos Kossuth and Italian revolutionaries.

One of the main claims of the book is that in the nineteenth century, a great portion of American citizens did not openly celebrate foreign revolutions. The author directly connects this to the post-Napoleonic diplomatic mode of thought and Americans’ perception of foreign entanglements. Especially, the fear of violent insurrections (as the book emphasizes, Jacobinism) becomes very prevalent in mid-nineteenth-century American society. However, as the nineteenth century progresses, the issue of slavery within the United States is addressed in other revolutionary writings. This is something we see openly in the chapters on Kossuth and how the perception of Kossuth’s travels across America changed throughout the nineteenth century. I cannot agree with Roberts’ initial claim about the American society’s reaction to foreign revolutions. Especially for the Greek and Italian cases, many abolitionists seem to be very eager to aid foreign revolutionaries. However, I would agree that in the nineteenth century, there was a great disparity between public and governmental perceptions over foreign policy and the position of the United States as a political player.

Although I disagree with some of the points Roberts makes in this work, it still manages to analyze intricacies between public vs. governmental perceptions in the nineteenth century. Additionally, it showcases how Southerner and Northerner intellectuals perceive nineteenth-century revolutions.