The Revolution to Come
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Dan Edelstein
About this book
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.
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Frontmatter
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Contents
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Introduction: Come the Revolution
1 - Part I Fortune’s Revolutions
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Chapter one. Revolution in Ancient Greek Thought
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Chapter two. Rome, Polybius, and the Revolution of Governments
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Chapter three. How Translations of Polybius Transformed Political Thought
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Chapter four. The Misfortunes of History
76 - Part II Constitutions and Revolutions in the British World, 1642–1787
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Introduction
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Chapter five. An Eccentric Constitution (1642–60)
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Chapter six. Revolution Principles (1688–1760)
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Chapter seven. The Last of the Polybians (1764–87)
125 - Part III Modern Times
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Introduction
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Chapter eight. The Progress of History
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Chapter nine. Enlightenment Revolutions
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Chapter ten. The Dual Power in the French Revolution
173 - Part IV The Progress of Revolution
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Chapter eleven. Liberal Revolution and Its Discontents
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Chapter twelve. Revolutionary Futures: The Politics of Imagination
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Chapter thirteen. Revolution in Permanence
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Chapter fourteen. Red Leviathan: authority and violence
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Conclusion The Coming Revolution?
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Acknowledgments
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Abbreviations
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Notes
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Bibliography
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Index
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