Socialism and Communism's spread during 1848's revolution. A comparison between Italy and Germany

The Author shows how, studying the 1848 revolution in Europe, a great attention must be devoted to where the emphasis lies, on the socio-economic factors or on the political and cultural ones. He gives some data to show hour for instance, at least in Germany (but also in France), the economic crisis has already been overtaken, but how this had not yet reflected on the popular classes' living conditions, thus paving the way to revolution. He also shows how 1848's revolution was mainly, an urban affair, envolving the first groups of industrial workers, the people working in handicraft, the persons with home-based productions and the day-labourers All they were asking was in the socio-economic domain, better wages, better working conditions, and so on. The socialist and communist ideas were scarcely known. The essay continues explaining how in Italy the situation was similar to the German and French one, with a heavy accent on social changes, and a strong emphasis against the communist and socialist doctrines.