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Helping Students Analyze Revolutions Stephen Armstrong and Marian Desrosiers

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Helping Students Analyze Revolutions Stephen Armstrong and Marian Desrosiers Social Education 76(1), pp 38 ©2012 National Council for the Social Studies Helping Students Analyze Revolutions Stephen Armstrong and Marian Desrosiers visitor to a random sampling of Modern World History classes in the United ics of revolutions that can be usefully States will find that the subject of “revolution” is a favorite for many students. applied to subsequent and contemporary A Reading about and researching individuals and topics such as Tsar Nicholas revolutions. II, Rasputin, Marie Antoinette and guillotines is never boring. Unfortunately, in too many classrooms, revolutions are studied in complete isolation of each other; What Is a Revolution? a student might study the French Revolution near the beginning of the school year Before we can even begin to compare and the Russian Revolution several months later and make absolutely no connection revolutions or theories of revolution, it between the two events. In the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, numerous political is important to identify what the term scientists and historians have written about the connections between various revolu- “revolution” actually means. By virtually tions, discovering common patterns, structures, and characteristics of both historical every definition, a revolution is more and contemporary revolutions. than just a change of a single leader, even if that leader is removed by violent This article will review important To assist teachers to compare and con- means. Crane Brinton (whose theory general theories of revolution written trast the French, Russian, and Chinese of revolution will be analyzed shortly) in the modern era that have influenced revolutions in class, this article includes states that in a revolution there is a “dras- the study of revolutions. They will be a three-page section on pp. 41–43 pre- tic, sudden substitution of one group in presented in a format that enables any senting seven important aspects of each charge of the running of a territorial po- Modern World History teacher to un- revolution—the economic crisis imme- litical entity by another group hitherto derstand them and utilize them with his diately preceding the revolution; the not running that government.” By this or her classes without much difficulty. It relationship between the elite and other definition, the entire government, and is critically important that, when study- classes; the spread of revolutionary ideas not just the single leader, would have to ing history, students should make con- among the intelligentsia; the goals of the be replaced for a genuine revolution to nections across historical time; the ma- revolution and major revolutionaries; the take place. This is accomplished by vio- terial presented in this article will help establishment of a revolutionary dictator- lence; Brinton notes that a revolution “if them do that. ship; national mobilization in response not made by actual violent uprising, is Another goal of this article is to com- to foreign hostility; and the main legacy made by coup d’état, Putsch, or some pare and contrast the Russian and Chi- of the revolution. Although the details in other kind of skullduggery.”1 nese revolutions of the twentieth century this section are necessarily brief, it offers By Brinton’s definition, a revolution with the French Revolution of 1789. A information and themes for inquiry that can be purely political in nature; other number of Modern World History stu- can prompt and guide students as they historians and political scientists write dents study the French and Russian rev- conduct their own research into the rev- of social revolutions, during which the olutions in great detail; in many classes olutions. Students can be divided into entire social structure of a country is the Chinese revolution is studied in far groups, each of which studies a different altered. Samuel P. Huntington writes less detail. Sociologist Theda Skocpol aspect of the revolutions. By sharing their that “a revolution is a rapid, fundamen- compares these three revolutions in findings, students will help each other to tal, and violent domestic change in the her important book States and Social identify the kinds of crises that have led dominant values and myths of a society, Revolutions, which will be discussed in to revolutions, and classes can acquire in its political institutions, social struc- this article. a greater understanding of the dynam- ture, leadership, and government activi- Social Education 38 People in the city of Beijing raise their clenched fists in a welcoming salute for Chinese Communist Forces entering the city after driving out the Nationalist Forces, Feb. 5, 1949. The center portrait behind them is of General Mao Zedong. (AP Photo) ties and policies.”2 In Huntington’s view, first published in 1938; it was revised English Revolution discussed by Brin- a revolution does much more than sim- in 1952, and revised and expanded in ton might be done in one or two days. It ply alter the leadership of a country. In 1965. should be remembered that in the era addition, virtually all students of revo- Brinton’s work established common when Brinton was writing, the impact lution agree that either urban or agrar- patterns in the English Revolution of the of British history on American thinking ian unrest is a central component of any 1640s, the Russian Revolution of 1917, (and on American social studies cur- revolution. As Lenin states: “Revolu- the French Revolution, and the Ameri- riculum documents) was far greater than tions are the festivals of the oppressed can Revolution (although, the Ameri- it is today. and the exploited. At no other time are can Revolution does not fit together What patterns does Brinton see in the the masses of the people in position to as neatly as the other three do). When revolutions he describes? He begins by come forward so actively as creators of a explaining Brinton’s work to students, describing revolutions “as a kind of fe- new social order.”3 you should discuss how the time period ver.” In the pre-revolutionary era (the in which he was writing influenced his period that Brinton and many others Crane Brinton’s The Anatomy of ideas. Brinton wrote the first edition of term the “old regime”), symptoms of the Revolution the book when Stalin was in power; he disturbance can be found. At some point, In the 1920s and 1930s a number of his- discusses “the recent—or present—rev- the “full symptoms” reveal themselves, torians attempted to determine patterns olution in Russia.”4 Brinton had no idea and that is when the actual revolution in the events of important revolutions. that communism in Europe would col- takes place. The fever reaches a crisis It should be remembered that for these lapse or that democracy would ever be- point; in a revolution, this is usually the historians the 1917 Russian Revolution come commonplace in the Soviet Union. most violent phase. After a while, the fe- was more a “current event” than history; American high school students today ver subsides and the patient feels more many were fascinated (and horrified) by would find it odd that Brinton spends like himself again; this is when the revo- this most-recent revolution and were as much time on the English Revolution lution subsides, and the political system attempting to place it in the context of of the 1640s as he does on the French, reverts to somewhat “back to normal.”5 other famous revolutions. The most fa- Russian, and American revolutions; in In a general sense, Brinton sees the mous book on revolutions to come out many world history classes today, weeks revolutions in question moving through of this period was Crane Brinton’s The might be spent on the French and Rus- “a progression, from internal breakdown Anatomy of Revolution. This book was sian revolutions while analysis of the of the old regime, through moderate re- January/February 2012 39 form, to the rise of extremism (“Reigns been obtained relatively peacefully. 8 the terror: he notes that in every case of Terror and Virtue”), followed by 3. Initially, moderates were in con- a series of troubles prepared the way an inevitable reaction against this vio- trol at the beginning of each revolution. and created a “habit of violence.” In lence” which Brinton calls a “Thermi- During the rule of the moderates it is addition, these extremist governments dorian Reaction.” The extremes of the soon apparent that there are ideologi- all felt the pressures of foreign and revolution are now curtailed, and “a cal divisions among the “winners” of civil wars. Acute economic struggles more stable government emerged….” the revolution. Moderates attempt to and class struggles exerted pressure on The new government is dominated by govern, but are soon on the defensive; these governments; all of these factors a previous military commander, or a radicals were critical that moderates made terror an almost inevitable policy dictator, or both (Cromwell, Napo- were attempting to kill the “true goals” choice for the extremists in charge.12 leon, Washington, and Stalin).6 of the revolution. Extremists are better At some point, countries decided A brief description of the stages organized, and are continually on the that the Terror had gone too far. Brin- described by Brinton will follow. De- attack against the moderates. A dual ton calls this period the Thermidor- tailed descriptions of what happens sovereignty develops: there is an of- ian Reaction; he states that in France in each of the stages in the countries ficial government and an “unofficial” this occurred with the fall of Robe- described by Brinton can be found in government that many radicals are spierre and in the Soviet Union when his text (or can be researched by your loyal to (the Provisional Government Lenin introduced the New Economic students).
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