Why did the revolutions of 1848 fail?

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The European Revolutions of 1848 are a little studied topic in America but they probably should be studied more.  Their outcome had implications for America well into the twentieth century.  The survival of the Prussian monarchy is one outcome.  There was also a wave of disaffected liberals that immigrated to the US after the revolutionary’s failure.

These revolutions failed uniformly everywhere except for France.  The contemporary explanation for their failure was that the forces of reaction were too entrenched in their power to topple.  I think that is a spurious argument at best.  It is my opinion that the revolutions for the most part failed because they lacked a central figure everywhere but France and the revolutionaries themselves did not have a coherent set of changes they wanted enacted.  The conservatives had the various heads of state to rally around and in many states the regimes instituted limited change and essentially stole the liberals thunder.  What do you think?