The Revolutionary Organisation : Armed Struggle from the Late 18th Century to the Present / by Erik van Ree.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Ree, Erik van, author.

Series:

Studies in global social history ; v. 57.

Social Sciences E-Books Online, Collection 2026.

Social Sciences E-Books Online, Collection 2026

Studies in Global Social History ; volume 57

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Ideology.

Organization.

Revolutions--History.

Revolutions.

World politics.

History.

History, Modern.

Social history.

Social sciences.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (427 pages)

Other Title:

Armed Struggle from the Late 18th Century to the Present

Place of Publication:

Leiden ; Boston : Brill, [2025]

Language Note:

English

Summary:

This is the first comprehensive study of the phenomenon of the armed-struggle revolutionary organisation. The Revolutionary Organisation covers the period from the late 18th century to the present, is global in scope, and discusses organisations inspired by all main ideological traditions: communist, anti-colonialist, nationalist, democratic, Islamist, fascist, and white supremacist. The condition of life-and-death struggle with the state imposes similar patterns of operation upon these organisations, irrespective of their ideological inclinations. This work interprets armed-struggle revolutionary organisations as hybrids of three orientations: an apparatus of professional revolutionaries; an emotional community sustained by ideology, battle comradeship, and ritual; and an instrument of physical force nurturing an heroic organisational ethos.

Contents:

Preface and Acknowledgements

Abbreviations

PART 1

Introduction

1 Introduction

1 Revolutionary Organisations

2 Revolution and Modernity

3 Definitions

4 Problems of Definition

5 Three Great Traditions

6 Making Revolution: Spontaneous and Planned Revolutions

7 Methodology

8 Subjectivity, Sources

2 The Revolutionary Organisation

1 Apparatus, Emotional Community, Instrument of Physical Force

2 Apparatus

3 Emotional Community

4 Instrument of Physical Force

5 The Life-and-Death Struggle

PART 2

Professional Revolutionaries

3 Revolutionary Commitment

1 Social Injustice and Humiliation

2 Humiliated Nation. Humiliated Race

3 Gender: Humiliation and the Independent Life

4 Heroes Old and New

5 Heroic Self-Sculpting

6 The Life of Greatness

7 Conversion

8 The Criminal Element

9 Commitment

4 Professional Revolutionaries

1 Revolution as Skill

2 Revolution as Secrecy

3 Revolution on Salary

4 Revolutionary Criminality

5 Bureaucracies in Permanent Crisis: Exiles versus Undergrounders

6 Bureaucracies in Permanent Crisis: the Leader-Centred Organisation

7 Leadership and Gender

5 Revolutionary Intelligentsia, Revolutionary Margin

1 Revolutionary Social Mobility

2 Drifters

3 The Family Uprooted

4 International Armed Solidarity

5 Total Immobility

5.1 Revolutionary Bohemia

6 Communal Living

7 The Mainstream (Or Not-So-Mainstream) Lifestyle

8 The Ascetic-Puritanical Lifestyle

9 The Libertine Lifestyle

6 Emotional Community

1 The Revolutionary Personality

2 Battle

3 The Idea

4 Collective Study

5 Ritual

6 Initiation Ceremonies, the Oath

7 Ceremonies of Periodic Meeting, Martyr Rituals

8 Modes of Address and Dress Codes

9 Revolutionary Symbolism

7 Instrument of Physical Force

1 Warfare and Terrorism

2 Legitimation: Ends and Means

3 A Job to Be Done, Concern, Euphoria, Massacre Fantasies

4 Violence as Purification

5 Revolutionary Heroism, Embedded Heroism

6 Heroic Self-Understanding, Heroic Poetry

7 Heroic Propaganda, Heroic Mobilisation

8 Revolutionary Heroines

9 New Times

PART 3

Apparatus

8 Professional-Revolutionary Philosophies: the Organisation

1 The Pyramid

2 Hierarchy No, Organisation Yes

3 The Pyramid Perfected

4 The Leader

5 From Single Leader to ‘Non-Organisation’

6 Emir, Apparatus, Warriors

7 Conclusion

9 The Revolutionary Organisation: Beginnings

1 The Army Problem

2 Bands, Committees, Secret Societies, Religious Congregations

3 Clubs and Parties

4 Volunteer Armies

5 Time of Transition

6 The Rise of the Party in Arms

10 The Politico-Military Organisation

1 Politico-Military Secret Societies

2 Communist Parties in Arms

3 Parties in Arms: Fascism

4 Parties in Arms: Revolutionary Nationalism

5 The Volunteer Army Pyramid

6 Volunteer Army Two-Branchism

7 Islamist Volunteer Armies

8 Committees of Military Officers

9 Terrorist Army Fractions

10 The Politico-Military Control System

11 Military Rebellions

12 Supranational Organisation

11 Revolutionary Etatisation

1 Revolutionary Etatisation: Process

2 Revolutionary Etatisation: Ideology

3 The Nineteenth Century

4 Modes of Etatisation

5 Rural Guerrillas: State Construction

6 Rural Guerrillas: the Social Contract

7 Urban Insurrection

8 Urban Guerrillas

Conclusion: Final Thoughts on Revolutionary Organisation and Violence

1 The Armed-Struggle Ethos

2 Revolution as War

3 The Future of Armed Revolution

Bibliography

Index

Preface and Acknowledgements

Index.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and indexes.

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9789004737235

OCLC:

1541771419

Publisher Number:

10.1163/9789004737235 DOI