Christine Lattek. Revolutionary Refugees: German Socialism in Britain, 1840-1860. London and New York: Routledge, 2006. xiv + 358 pp. Notes, bibliography, index. $135.00 (cloth), ISBN 0-714-65100-1.
Reviewed by: Gary Roth, Rutgers University at Newark.
Published by: H-German (June, 2006)
Waiting for the Revolution
Christine Lattek's Revolutionary Refugees is a study of the political refugees who fled Germany in the 1840s, some of whom had been forced into exile even before the defeat of the continental uprisings of 1848-49. A large cluster of individuals settled in London, and over the next decade they helped define the political landscape for both the Left and the Center--not only of the various socialisms but also of the conflicting notions of democracy and liberalism that characterized German politics for a significant portion of the century.
Revolutionary Refugees covers much ground, including general descriptions of the German exile community in London. The radical community of socialists and democrats was quite vibrant and numbered perhaps a thousand or so within the wider German emigrant population of some tens of thousands. Lattek's analysis centers on the German Workers' Educational Association (renamed the Communistischer Arbeiter-Bildungsverein) within which and over which many debates and much political lobbying took place. In order to explain this organization, however, she must also map out the schisms and tensions that prompted the collapse of several other important organizations: the League of the Just and the Communist League, where Marx was so influential, as well as a host of lesser-known groups. She also highlights the key competitors within the politicized exile community, including Wilhelm Weitling, Karl Schapper, Arnold Ruge, Gottfried Kinkel, August Willich and Karl Vogt.
Of particular interest to Lattek are the schisms within the socialist camp over revolutionary expectations and coalitions with democratic groups, as well as the variety of stances taken by the democratic exiles about whether or not to collaborate with the socialists. There was intense jockeying between the different political tendencies and orientations, all of which was greatly exacerbated by personality conflicts. The democrats dominated exile politics, but there were also other groups, like the Blanquists in France and the Chartists in Great Britain, with whom the German groups triangulated. One of the themes followed by Lattek is the evolving notion of internationalism that resulted from these many-sided contacts.
Virtually everyone expected a new revolutionary period would soon follow the events of 1848-49; hence the intense seriousness with which the refugees viewed their own positions and influence. Marx and Engels were some of the first to realize that a period of social and economic stability had set in. Added tensions among the exiled centered on the long- and short-term expectations for a renewed period of upheaval. Lattek traces the ever-changing status of Marx within the socialist camp, as he was not always its most influential member, and she provides us with a nuanced picture of the world which shaped Marx's day-to-day activities and political intriguing.
Even though Marx looms large in these pages, he never quite emerges as fully intelligible, in part because of the complex nature of émigré politics and because of his own many-sided attempts to both situate and differentiate his analyses from so many others. Lattek follows his political evolution, but the complexity of the history becomes a barrier to full comprehension. She provides Marx with only his share of the history, which has the advantage of allowing her to more closely mirror the actual history and concentrate on individuals not normally given much attention. But since Marx is the most recognizable of all the main participants, additional focus on him might have provided an easier-to-follow narrative thread.
This is a fine study that remains immersed in the detailed unfolding of debates, intra- and inter-organizational feuds, and fierce polemical conflicts. The center-of-gravity, in terms of individuals and organizations, keeps shifting. There are many important individuals, just as there are many important organizations within which these individuals functioned. Each of them had their own ideas, some rooted in comprehensive ideologies, others as an outgrowth of immediate concerns and topical issues. Lattek has conducted an exhaustive review of letters, newspapers, pamphlets, memoirs, and other published and archival materials. That her account is laden with detail adds to the difficulty of following the story she so painstakingly rediscovered. The sense of overview and perspective, which Lattek provides quite admirably, gets overwhelmed by the finely-grained rendition of this complex history. That the 230 pages of text are accompanied by over 90 pages of notes (over 1,300 individual notes, many of which include multiple citations), gives an indication of the thickness of her description.
Nonetheless, Lattek's rendition of the revolutionary socialists and democrats offers extensive information about this formative period.
Citation: Gary Roth. "Review of Christine Lattek, Revolutionary Refugees: German Socialism in Britain, 1840-1860," H-German, H-Net Reviews, June, 2006. URL: http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.cgi?path=124891159978893.
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