Revolution is among the most recent of all major political phenomena. To analyze and interpret its meaning Dr. Arendt turns back to the first great examples: the American and the French. How was it possible for the first to accomplish its objectives under the control and guidance of the men who started it, while the second foundered in impotence and terror so that the onlookers came to believe that revolution must of necessity devour its own children? How could a Robespierre substitute an irresistible and anonymous stream of violence for the free and deliberate actions of men? What basic difference between the two made the French Revolution, with its emphasis on historical necessity, the apparently inescapable model for later revolutions in Russia and China--and them in turn models for later uprisings? What has happened to the ideal of freedom as the end and justification of revolution? What has happened to foundation--the novus ordo saeclorum? With her characteristic originality and brilliance of analysis, Dr. Arendt traces back to their beginnings the principles that underlie these great events, principles that contain the answers to these questions and throw light upon the present and the future. Finally, she advances a daring proposal for restoring the revolutionary virtues and eliminating the evils of mass society--a means of reconciling equality with authority and of restoring public happiness and public freedom to the people.--From book jacket.
On Revolution
Year
1956
Pages
368
Type
Nonfiction
Description
Revolution is among the most recent of all major political phenomena. To analyze and interpret its meaning Dr. Arendt turns back to the first great examples: the American and the French. How was it possible for the first to accomplish its objectives under the control and guidance of the men who started it, while the second foundered in impotence and terror so that the onlookers came to believe that revolution must of necessity devour its own children? How could a Robespierre substitute an irresistible and anonymous stream of violence for the free and deliberate actions of men? What basic difference between the two made the French Revolution, with its emphasis on historical necessity, the apparently inescapable model for later revolutions in Russia and China--and them in turn models for later uprisings? What has happened to the ideal of freedom as the end and justification of revolution? What has happened to foundation--the novus ordo saeclorum? With her characteristic originality and brilliance of analysis, Dr. Arendt traces back to their beginnings the principles that underlie these great events, principles that contain the answers to these questions and throw light upon the present and the future. Finally, she advances a daring proposal for restoring the revolutionary virtues and eliminating the evils of mass society--a means of reconciling equality with authority and of restoring public happiness and public freedom to the people.--From book jacket.
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