The culmination of the career of one of the most erudite and imaginative American historians, his latest work is a classic example of dazzling knowledge and a writing style that is both idiosyncratic and accessible.

In a series of revolutions starting in 1820, four army officers set out on horseback from obscure European cities to bring political freedom and a constitution to Spain, Naples, and Russia, and national independence to the Greeks.

The individuals who ignited these endeavors from Andalusia to the snowy plains of Ukraine – Colonel Rafael del Riego, General Guglielmo Pepe, General Alexander Ypsilantis, and Colonel Sergei Muravyov-Apostol – all hoped to overturn the old order.

Within the next six years, their revolutions ended in failure, and they became their own tragic martyrs.

By juxtaposing these stories and contrasting events and movements, the late historian Richard Stites illuminates themes such as guerrilla warfare, secret societies, the transmission of ideas and people across borders, the formation of an international community of revolutionaries, and the appropriation of Christian symbols and vocabularies for secular purposes.

He shows how various forms of popular expression, art, celebration, propaganda, and religion contributed to these revolutionary movements and regimes. He documents the corruption, the abandonment of liberal values, and the blatant betrayal of the revolution as manifested in Spain and Naples; the clash of ambitions and ideas that shattered the fighting unity of the Decembrists; and the civil war that erupted at the heart of the Greek struggle.

Author: RICHARD STITES

Language: ENGLISH

Pages: 592

Dimensions: 240X170X0