<DIV>A torrent of revolutions ripped through Europe in the year 1848. The storm all but swept away the conservative order that had held sway since the fall of Napoleon in 1815. Over the course of the spring and summer, crowds of working-class radicals and middle-class liberals in Paris, Milan, Venice, Naples, Palermo, Vienna, Prague, Budapest, Krakow, Munich, and Berlin toppled the old regimes and began the task of forging a new order.<p>A vivid narrative of a continent in revolt, <i>1848</i> tells the thrilling story of a tumultuous age&#151; and explains the many ways in which this year of revolutions continues to shape the modern world.</DIV>