Revolution? Counterrevolution? What Revolution? Author(s): Eugen Weber Source: Journal of Contemporary History, Vol. 9, No. 2 (Apr., 1974), pp. 3-47 Published by: Sage Publications, Ltd. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/260045 Accessed: 31-08-2015 15:38 UTC Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/ info/about/policies/terms.jsp JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact
[email protected]. Sage Publications, Ltd. is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Journal of Contemporary History. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 128.103.149.52 on Mon, 31 Aug 2015 15:38:49 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Revolution? Counterrevolution? What revolution? Eugen Weber Almost any discussion of fascism is bound to involve consideration, explicit or not, of its revolutionary or counterrevolutionary nature. Fascists claimed to engage in a revolution. Their opponents denounced them as counter- revolutionaries. Most students divide unevenly about this: many consider the fascists' counterrevolutionary role self-evident, a few prefer to begin by taking the fascists at their word, some still judge the charges unproven. At any rate, the debate suggests the high symbolic, hence passional and practical, value of terms like revolution and counterrevolution, increasingly loaded, in intellectual and political intercourse, with an ethical burden that even the mass media perceive.