“There is individual freedom, but there is also the collective, political level of freedom. I think the attempt to combine the two is what makes countercultural movements so unique—and why I think their account of freedom is revolutionary.”
Category: Concepts
Robert Darnton Interviewed by Disha Karnad Jani: “The Revolutionary Temper”
“Darnton traces how the antecedents to revolution circulated among the Parisian public in the decades before the storming of the Bastille, through their everyday oppositions to the rising price of bread, the overreaches of the monarchy, and the policing of poor neighborhoods. Through their growing sense that the powerful in their society were not governing as they should,…
Thomas Meaney: “You Can’t Trust Elites. Just Ask a 500-Year-Old German Peasant.”
In “Summer of Fire and Blood,” Lyndal Roper tells the story of the serfs who fought for a better life and the elites who co-opted their movement.
Alexander Aerts: “Alexandre Kojève: Bildung in a Revolutionary Cell”
“Kojève thought that this revolutionary terror formed the necessary condition for the creation of freedom to come. The realisation of this ‘actual’ freedom came about with the eventual dissolution of ‘absolute’ freedom. In 1918, with Russia standing at the crossroads of history, the constitution of the Bolshevik regime and the previous period of war communism…
Farzeen Nasri: “Is a Revolution in Iran on the Horizon?”
Revolutions have been understood in different ways, but two primary definitions are particularly relevant. One views a revolution as “a movement that brings about the (violent) overthrow of a government,” which leads to significant social and political changes. The other defines it as a radical shift in political order, where one system is replaced by…
Jiří Juhász: ‘“Losers” in History: Charles Tilly and the Fates of the Defeated in Revolutionary Change’
“In examining the experiences of the “losers” in revolutionary change, Charles Tilly’s work provides a critical lens for understanding the dynamics of resistance and counter-revolution. Whether in the context of the Vendée, the Arab Spring, or the 1989 revolutions, the losers often sought to preserve aspects of the old order. “
Roberto Breña: “The Age of Revolutions Under the Microscope”
“This bibliographic essay critically reviews two recent books on the Atlantic Revolutions and the Age of Revolutions: The Age of Atlantic Revolution by Patrick Griffin (2023) and The Age of Revolutions by Nathan Perl-Rosenthal (2024).”
Patrick Kingsley: “Revolutions Swept the Middle East in 2011. Will Syria’s End Differently?”
“Mr. al-Assad’s stunning fall finally allows Syrians to feel the joy that their counterparts experienced more than a decade ago in Egypt, Libya, Tunisia and Yemen — the four Arab countries where dictators were toppled far more quickly. Yet while those four states provided a template for revolutionary success, their trajectories since the Arab Spring…
T.J. Clark: “Knife at the Throat”
“Shatz, just as much as Macey, wishes to tell the story of the making of a revolutionary. He too knows that in Fanon’s case the identity ‘revolutionary’ held together (just) many half-identities, many human conditions, some embraced and some rejected, some explicit, others living on in an inflexible Unconscious.”
Shafi Md Mostofa: “Injustice Paves the Way for Revolution: Lessons from Bangladesh”
“Moreover, the success of any revolution depends on the cultural preparedness of the people. Revolutions may be sparked by injustice, but their outcomes are shaped by the collective consciousness and readiness of the populace to embrace change. In Bangladesh’s case, the cultural strength of the student-led movement, and the symbolic leadership of a figure like…