Revolution : structure and meaning in world history / Saïd Amir Arjomand.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Arjomand, Said Amir, author.

Contributor:

Anne and Joseph Trachtman Memorial Book Fund.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Revolutions.

History.

Revolutions--History--To 1500.

Revolutions--Philosophy.

Genre:

History.

Physical Description:

xi, 394 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Chicago : The University of Chicago Press, 2019.

Summary:

A revolution is a discontinuity: one political order replaces another, typically through whatever violent means are available. Modern theories of revolutions tend neatly to bracket the French Revolution of 1789 with the fall of the Soviet Union two hundred years later, but contemporary global uprisings-with their truly multivalent causes and consequences-can overwhelm our ability to make sense of them. In this authoritative new book, Said Amir Arjomand reaches back to antiquity to propose a unified theory of revolution. Revolution illuminates the stories of premodern rebellions from the ancient world, as well as medieval European revolts and more recent events, up to the Arab Spring of 2011. Arjomand categorizes revolutions in two groups: ones that expand the existing body politic and power structure, and ones that aim to erode-but paradoxically augment-their authority. The revolutions of the past, he tells us, can shed light on the causes of those of the present and future: as long as centralized states remain powerful, there will be room for greater, and perhaps forceful, integration of the politically disenfranchised.

Contents:

Introduction: revolution in comparative and historical sociology

The Akkadian constitutive revolution and the establishment of universal monarch in Mesopotamia

The Athenian constitutive revolution and subsequent revolutions of ancient Greece

Revolution in the Roman Republic

Revolution in the Roman Principate and its transformation into imperial constitutional autocracy

The last Roman integrative revolution

Rise of the Sasanian empire: a feudal integrative revolution in late antiquity

Rise of Islam: the constitutive revolution of late antiquity

Islam's integrative social revolution

The papal revolution and its export: the Crusades

The Mongolian integrative revolution in eurasia

Conclusion: world-historical and theoretical significance of premodern revolutions

Epilogue: revolutions of the last hundred years in the light of my typology

Conclusion.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Anne and Joseph Trachtman Memorial Book Fund.

ISBN:

9780226026831

0226026833

OCLC:

1051681355