Well, the thing is, those events, and various difficult, terrifying, heartrending political events in the 1980's as well, were pressed into service as the motivation for the alchemical research, which in the end, while it had profound effects on individual people, did not actually solve any of the pressing problems of either the 19th or the 20th century. The author was aware that his story was set partly in 1848 and what was going on all over Europe, but it all ended up feeling like stage props.

P.