The Aftermath of the 1848 Revolution

Zsigmond Kemény, the Transylvanian-born author, in his 1850 pamphlet, After the Revolution, questioned the Romantic concept of national character, and characterized tradition as ambivalent: both a sine qua non of culture and a system of dated conventions. Kemény drew on Bentham's utilitarianism, considering the right to property to be the basis of society. Liberalism and nationalism were in conflict during the Revolution, and the fate of the Revolution showed that extremes may lead to failure