Re: "Anatomy of an Empire" Research Project
Stop complaining! We are slow but efficient...
Brinton, Crane. The Anatomy of Revolution, Prentice Hall, 1965.
Compared Britain, France, Russia, America
"Thus we see that certain economic grievances - usually not in the form of economic distress, but rather a feeling on the part of some of the chief enterprising groups that their opportunities for getting on in this world are unduly limited by political arrangements - would seem to be one of the symptoms of revolution." pg 34
"This conceptual scheme of the social equilibrium is probably in the long run the most useful for the sociologist of revolutions." pg 16
one key is the existing government attempted to collect monies from people who refused to pay" pg 78
contends revolution must be combination of circumstance and plot
"Actually, we must reject both extremes, for they are nonsense, and hold that revolutions do grow from seeds sown by men who want change, and that these men do do a lot of skillful gardening; but rather in soil and in a climate propitious to their work; and that the final fruits represent a collaboration between men and nature." pg 86
" In each revolution there is a point, or several points, where constituted authority is challenged by the illegal acts of revolutionists. In such instances, the routine response of any authority is to have recourse to force, police or military. Our authorities made such a response, but in each case with a striking lack of success." pg 86
"No government has ever fallen before attackers until it has lost control over its armed forces or lost the ability to use them effectively" pg 89
""We may say then that in all our revolutions there is a tendency for power to go from Right to Center to Left..."pg 123
"Their fewness is indeed one of the great sources of the extremists' strength. Great numbers are almost as unwieldy in politics as on the battlefield."pg 154 Once in power extremists have a few months or perhaps a year where they can do anything they like as no one dares to challenge them. Reign of Terror
Uniformities
1. all societies on the upgrade economically and the revolutionary movements seem to originate in the discontents of not un prosperous people who feel restraint, cramp, annoyance, rather than downright crushing oppression.
2. definite and very bitter class antagonisms
3. transfer of allegiance of the intellectuals
4. government machinery clearly inefficient, at least partly because new conditions laid an intolerable strain on governmental machinery adapted to simpler, more primitive, conditions.
5. many individuals of the old ruling class came to distrust themselves, or lose faith in the traditions and habits of their class--and becomes politically inept. pg 251-2
and the Wikilink
and a nice study that uses Brinton to analyze the Sandinista revolution: http://www.ucis.pitt.edu/clas/nicara...ista(full).pdf
How about an analysis of the situation in Iraq based on Brinton's views?
http://www.strategicstudiesinstitute...es/ksil152.pdf
Even Venezuela is covered!
In a book first published in 1938, Crane Brinton argued that revolutions have a three-stage process of development: moderate, extremist, and
“Thermidorian” (rule by one man: Napoleon, Stalin, Mao, Castro) (Brinton 1962). It would appear, according to the evidence now available, that the
“Chavista revolution” has mixed up the three stages into one; it combines fiery rhetoric with practices that are rooted in the past, and shows unequivocal signs of personalization and concentration of power at the presidential level. I do not think that what is happening in Venezuela can legitimately be branded a “revolution” in any rigorous sense of the term (Kaplan 1973).
http://www.iaeal.usb.ve/91/91-7.pdf
Have fun!
:wink:
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