more nearly than they resemble the idealized future so-
ciety that radical reformers foresee in their dreams. The
years before 1848 were a period of romantic idealism
when many critics of society allowed their imagination to
run way with them. They wanted to repair the evils and
injustices they saw around them, but they did not under-
stand those evils clearly enough. The cures they proposed
were often too bookish and impractical. The basic causes
of popular discontent were the stresses and strains that
had developed in a growing and changing society. In most
European countries governments and institutions had not
adapted themselves rapidly enough to modify and balance
the growing pressures. In other words, many rulers, states-
men, and legislators were insensitive and unrealistic.

Unrealistic Leadership. But, as events proved,
most of the leaders of the revolution were even more un-
realistic. The new political experiments they launched
seldom worked satisfactorily. The reformers with their
idealistic aims often showed themselves more ignorant of
actual conditions, more out of touch with the masses they
hoped to liberate, than the monarchs and their ministers
were. Few of the leaders of the revolutionary movement
were trained administrators, men who had learned from
practical experience that "politics is the art of the pos-
sible." They were idealists who hoped to achieve the
"best" solution, forgetting that the best may be the enemy
of the good. Their blueprints for a new society were too
doctrinaire and they placed their trust in ideas and ideals
many of which failed when put to a practical test. In its
concept and leadership the revolutionary movement of
1848 was too largely a "revolution of the intellectuals."

Internal Contradictions. There were other and
more fundamental reasons why the movement faltered and
became deadlocked. In each country from the outset the
reformers were divided against themselves. They did not
realize at first how divergent and contradictory their aims
would prove to be. Disputes and quarrels divided their
ranks when it was most essential to unite against the
forces of reaction that gathered against them. Four basic
sources of disagreement confused and weakened the rev-
olutionary movement. (1) Radical socialist reformers
sought justice for the "disinherited" classes, the peasants

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