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The 1848 Revolutions Did Not Fail | The New Republic

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What’s the best way to build a barricade? A carriage or wagon is a good start, heaved over to form a sturdy base. Next: Peel up the street cobbles and stack them any which way—so long as the bulwark is tall enough to hide a regiment of street fighters and a squadron of women with rocks in their aprons. For this rugged foundation, any old junk will do. Dining chairs, window shutters, gilt-edged chaises longues from the houses of the rich; bricks and lumber from warehouses; barrels from the local breweries (which can be quickly emptied—for courage, of course). Behind the parapet, weapons are an eclectic mix: blacksmiths’ hammers and butchers’ cleavers, perhaps an ancient shotgun or, if luck is on your side, a musket lifted from a slain soldier. All that’s left is to glance over at the faces of your comrades, pale with terror at their own daring. What Is “Fusion Voting”? Just a Way to Save the Country, That’s All Much of Europe went to the barricades in 1848—the first and last truly Europ

What’s the best way to build a barricade? A carriage or wagon is a good start, heaved over to form a sturdy base. Next: Peel up the street cobbles and stack them any which way—so long as the bulwark is tall enough to hide a regiment of street fighters and a squadron of women with rocks in their aprons. For this rugged foundation, any old junk will do. Dining chairs, window shutters, gilt-edged chaises longues from the houses of the rich; bricks and lumber from warehouses; barrels from the local breweries (which can be quickly emptied—for courage, of course). Behind the parapet, weapons are an

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