“The fact that the Italian revolutionary became genuinely interested in Slavic literature, in particular in the works of Polish Romantic poets, deepened his understanding of the spiritual world of this part of Europe, which was still practically unknown to most intellectuals in the West. …The 1830s—the period of Young Europe's most intensive drive for revolutionary action—paved the ground for the national renaissance that exploded in the next decade” (34–35, 200).

Anna Procyk is professor emerita in the Department of History, Philosophy and Political Science at Kingsborough Community College, City University of New York. Her analysis of Giuseppe Mazzini's (1805–1872) influence on Polish and Ukrainian political activists in the first three decades of the nineteenth century should be read by every student of east European history, intellectual history, and political theory. Mazzini's thought and activism have to be understood as a reaction against the stipulations of the Vienna Congress of 1815: Napoleon had ignited the fire of freedom in Europe, and the reactionary regime of Prince Klemens von Metternich (1773–1859) sought to quench the last sparks of that fire. Owing to Mazzini's Young Europe activists, a secular and intimate group of intellectuals aiming at the liberation of the oppressed, the Spring of Nations of 1848 would erupt violently in many European cities, most notably Vienna, Prague, and Paris.

Owing to her superb mastery of Ukrainian, Slovak, Russian, and Italian sources, Procyk closes an important gap that scholars of east European studies have hitherto neglected: the post-1815 activities of revolutionary activists. She convincingly shows how Mazzini's idea of a revolution based on principles of national unity and democracy, that is, the integration of all social classes into the revolutionary and national liberation movement, took root in national groups ruled by foreign monarchs. While Mazzini's plan of Italian unity resulted in the successful Risorgimento movement led by Giuseppe Garibaldi (1807–1882), the Slavs were not that lucky. The Poles would achieve sovereign statehood only in 1918, while the Ukrainians had to wait until 1991.

Besides the Marxist Antonio Gramsci (1891–1937) and Filippo Tommaso Marinetti (1876–1944), the principal thinker of the modernist art movement of Futurism, Mazzini is probably one of the most famous Italian theoreticians; his thought and political activities have been subjected to scholarly scrutiny, among them Roland Sarti's biography (1997) and Stefano Recchia and Nadia Urbinati's critical edition of selected texts of Mazzini (2009).

Procyk's study is structured in seven chapters that guide the reader from the origins of Mazzini's political thought and activism to his Young Europe movement. The narrative is excellently written; sometimes, it reads like a thriller. Chapter 4 is particularly interesting since it deals with Austrian rule in Galicia as a hot spot of revolution of citizens against the aristocracy.

Procyk has closed the scholarly gap of the post-1815 and pre-1848 political thought and movements in that contested region. Indeed, had it not been for Mazzini's political program and his adherents’ activities on behalf of Young Poland, the idea of a revolution of the Slavs in the spirit of democracy and national unity would not have emerged. Whatever paths the post-1848 Slavic intellectuals, disappointed by the failure of the 1848 revolution, took, Mazzini's thought was their basis, their point of no return.

One minor issue: Procyk should have mentioned, perhaps in a brief subchapter, how far Mazzini's Young Europe movement actually reached. Young Europe inspired also the Bulgarian national liberation movement, with Vasil Levski (1837–1873) as its principal activist. Levski's first biographer, Mercia MacDermott, called Levski The Apostle of Freedom, describing his fight against Ottoman rule in his native Bulgaria.

If one compares historical research to a jigsaw puzzle, Procyk's study is a corner piece. In our field, many excellent studies are being published that enlighten us about the region's past, its popular politicians, ignored intellectuals, and admired activists. Yet few studies deserve the predicate of “outstanding” for their wide scope and scholarly depth. Procyk's Mazzini is outstanding because the author convincingly explains how Young Europe activists contributed to the revolutionary activities after 1815, thereby preparing the Spring of Nations of 1848.