Revolution to Come A History of an Idea from Thucydides to Lenin
Produktdetaljer
Biografisk notat
Dan Edelstein is the William H. Bonsall Professor of French and (by courtesy) professor of political science and of history at Stanford University. His many books include On the Spirit of Rights and The Terror of Natural Right: Republicanism, the Cult of Nature, and the French Revolution."[An] engrossing tour de force. . . . Edelstein illuminates the fundamental dilemma at the heart of ancient and modern revolutions: the deep social conflicts that trigger political upheaval do not disappear in the aftermath of revolution, even as revolution sweeps aside those institutions needed to foster consensus."<b>---G. John Ikenberry, <i>Foreign Affairs</i></b>
"<i>The Revolution to Come</i> is a trenchant intellectual history of the modern revolutionary project, seeking to explain both its tendency toward slaughter and its fatal attraction to despotism. The book is sweeping in scale, fascinating in detail and equivocal in its implications."<b>---Jeffrey Collins, <i>Wall Street Journal</i></b>
"Insightful. . . . Always confident and alive to complexity, Edelstein brings to his new study a capacious knowledge of European history."<b>---Peter E. Gordon, <i>The Nation</i></b>
"Much more could be said about this wonderful book; the above only scratches the surface of the virtues on display. Not least that it is so eminently readable, yet without sacrificing the intellectual rigour and range required to pull off the author’s ambitions. At times, I felt like I was wrapped up in an epic novel, charting the intertwined lives of two central protagonists, with a host of intriguing supporting characters encountered along the way. I know of no greater praise for a work of this kind. It is intellectual history at its finest."<b>--- Paul Sagar, <i>Intellectual History Review</i></b>
"Rich, wide-ranging, and important. . . . [Edelstein’s] book should persuade intellectual historians that questions of revolution are never truly autonomous from ancient Greek and Roman political thought. It should also remind classicists that their discipline is deeply connected with questions of revolution, too."<b>---Daniel Sutton, <i>Polis</i></b>
"Exhibit[s] impressive range and subtlety."<b>---Richard Bourke, <i>Literary Review </i></b>
"<i>The Revolution to Come</i> stands as the most enlightening guide to the past, present, and even future of revolution."<b>---David Armitage, <i>History Today</i></b>
"Dan Edelstein has written a truly important work of history—in my view, one of the most important of the decade. . . . <i>[The Revolution to Come]</i> has deep implications for how we should understand modern revolutions themselves, above all the American and the French: a remarkable feat for such a relatively slim volume. And along the way Edelstein implicitly makes one of the strongest cases in recent memory for the importance of the Western canon."<b>---David Bell, <i>H-Diplo</i></b>
How an event once considered the greatest of all political dangers came to be seen as a solution to all social problems
Political thinkers from Plato to John Adams saw revolutions as a grave threat to society and advocated for a constitution that prevented them by balancing social interests and forms of government. The Revolution to Come traces how evolving conceptions of history ushered in a faith in the power of revolution to create more just and reasonable societies.
Taking readers from Greek antiquity to Leninist Russia, Dan Edelstein describes how classical philosophers viewed history as chaotic and directionless, and sought to keep historical change—especially revolutions—at bay. This conception prevailed until the eighteenth century, when Enlightenment thinkers conceived of history as a form of progress and of revolution as its catalyst. These ideas were put to the test during the French Revolution and came to define revolutions well into the twentieth century. Edelstein demonstrates how the coming of the revolution leaves societies divided over its goals, giving rise to new forms of violence in which rivals are targeted as counterrevolutionaries.
A panoramic work of intellectual history, The Revolution to Come challenges us to reflect on the aims and consequences of revolution and to balance the value of stability over the hope for change in our own moment of fear and upheaval.
“In The Revolution to Come, Dan Edelstein explores the history of one of our key political concepts: revolution. Blending history, philosophy, and political theory, Edelstein explores how an idea that was long considered a divisive and dangerous phenomenon came to be thought of as the gateway to a new and improved future. A must-read for anyone interested in the past and worried about the future of democracy.”—Annelien de Dijn, author of Freedom: An Unruly History
“In a tour de force, Dan Edelstein brilliantly draws together the web of meanings of ‘revolution’ since the Greeks and offers a completely new interpretation of the changes the concept underwent in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. This is an erudite and impassioned work—the most important reconsideration of revolution (and of revolutions, especially that of 1789) in decades.”—Stefanos Geroulanos, author of The Invention of Prehistory: Empire, Violence, and Our Obsession with Human Origins
“In this magisterial book, Dan Edelstein delivers, with grace and élan, a master class in how to write the history of ideas over the longue durée. After tracing the past and the past-futures of the idea of revolution, he concludes on an ominous note: the greatest revolutions are sometimes silent, and we may be living through one now.”—Darrin M. McMahon, author of Equality: The History of an Elusive Idea
“Long repudiated for their catastrophic risks, revolutions in modern times could inspire hope and optimism. Dan Edelstein’s erudite and exciting new exploration turns on how the Enlightenment theory of progress revolutionized the very idea of revolution. But it doubles as an accessible and wide-ranging study of continuity and change in Western political thought by a master of his craft.”—Samuel Moyn, Yale University