I decided to do my final paper in the form of an extended review. With that, I chose the book, “Revolution, Rebellion, Resistance: The Power of Story” by Eric Selbin.. We started focusing on this book later on in this semester, but the book was interesting so I decided to choose it. Being that Sociology is my minor, I was all for learning about new methods of sociology and movements. This book sort of sticks out from the very diverse studies of revolution that have been published before this one came out. The author takes a different approach of explaining revolutions by incorporating the use of stories. The author uses these stories and analyzes them to come up with answers based around revolutions. Some of the questions he take a shot at explaining are things like why revolutions happen in one place and not the other, why do they happen at one time period and not another time period and why certain people affected. Selbin explains and touches on the three main words; revolution, resistance, and rebellion. Though the three words are categories themselves, he also have them divided into four other categories. Other important aspects and keywords that he focus on are mimesis, memory, and myth. These are used to show the connection with revolutions as times went on and on. The words revolution, resistance comes form Greco-Roman revolutionary leaders and ancient myths. They also are from the memory of legendary local events and revolutions and movements that involves certain parts of the society. Selbin Uses stories, and focuses on society and culture to bring out a different view on the connection between revolutions and individuality. He uses more of an agency approach. We should know refers to individual doing this out of their ...
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...or social science works on revolution to focus more agency or society structured factors to their analyses. Selbin goes deep into history. From Greco-Roman and Judeo-Christian, he uses these stories of revolution as a guide for recent revolution outlooks. Shelbin based his analysis of his stories on myth, mimesis, and memories. This book does not read like the traditional political science books on revolution. The language he uses is very passionate, direct and emotional and he also uses the use of alliteration to give the text a flow. This book gave an interesting insight on revolutions from a very different perspective, but the difference allowed for a better understanding. Seblin argument started to get weak towards the end. It was like he couldn’t come up with anything else so he came up with that. Overall the book was a great read and very different and unique.
Did you know that the average gender wage gap in America, as of 2015, was
"You're a human being, not an animal. You have the right to be loved" (262). "Son of the Revolution" by Liang Heng and Judith Shapiro was a book that showed how inhumane many of the aspects of Chinese life were during the Cultural Revolution. The book followed Liang Heng through many of his childhood memories to his departure from China in his twenties. The book applied a real face to the important movements during the Cultural Revolution, the effects that "the cult of Mao" had on society and Heng, and the way the period affected Heng's personal family life.
Bolívar: American Liberator by Marie Arana is about Simón Bolívar’s life and his struggle against the Spanish Empire. Bolivar, also known as the “George Washington of South Americ,,” was born in Venezuela into one of the wealthiest families, but was orphaned at a young age. He was inspired by the idea of a free America and he dedicated his life to fighting for independence of South America from Spanish control. He helped lead and organize the independence movement of Venezuela, Panama, Ecuador, Bolivia, Columbia, and Peru. The novel follows his journey and his endeavors while fighting for freedom for the Spanish countries. I enjoyed the book and it made me feel empowered realizing how much drive was behind those fighting for their freedom from
Gordon Wood gives an interesting insight into the Revolution. Overall, I find Wood’s argument to be persuasive and refreshing. There is little doubt that the forces that Wood proclaims as significant in his history of the Revolution are important. However, it is this same concentration on non-traditional forces that leads to my criticism of his book.
In Todd Shepard’s work Voices of Decolonization, the featured documents provide keen insight into the geopolitical environment of the era of decolonization (1945-1965) and the external and internal pressures on the relationships between colonial nations and the territories that they held dominion over (Shepard 10). Decolonization is the result of a combination of national self-determination and the establishment of functional international institutions composed of independent sovereign nations united towards common goals. As decolonization progressed, it intersected with points of significant sociopolitical tension between colonies and the nations that colonized them. Some of these moments of tension came in the form of progressive ideals held by international agencies which colonial nations were allied with, the revolt of colonized populations against their standing government in favor of independence, and in moral and political conflicts that arose when decolonization takes a form unexpected or undesired by the primary agents of progressive international institutions.
Wood’s work to be illuminating, it is not free from shortcoming, Firstly, while he does place focus on certain political and economic factors, some issues and groups need could have been given more attention. With just two paragraphs focusing on slavery and no significant research regarding the lower class, both of which being essential ingredients of the American Revolution. Consequently, he chose to place his crosshairs on the elites and nobles, overlooking the role of the silent and forgotten majority. Secondly, he avoids talking about the reason and circumstances American Revolution end and opts to instead illustrate the extent of effect and benefits the radicalness of the revolution has had on modern American society. Nevertheless, these criticisms hardly touch the great perspectives laid out in this book. Dr. Wood presents American Revolution and more so the concept radicalism from a historical perspective which is as comprehensive as it is insightfully
Horan, Thomas. A. "Revolutions from the Waist Downwards: Desire as Rebellion In Yevgeny Zamyatin's We, George Orwell's 1984, and Aldous Huxley's Brave New World." Extrapolation 48.2 (2007): 314-39. Literature Resources from Gale, Inc. Web. The Web.
Throughout history, countless uprisings have occurred. Historians classify any forcible overthrow of a government or social order in favor of a new system as a revolution. The success or failure of a revolution is directly related to the revolution’s causes and consequences. The French Revolution was more successful than the Nicaraguan Revolution, because the Nicaraguan Revolution left the country in social and financial ruin, foreign powers had much greater interference, and it precipitated a period of political unrest with multiple leadership changes. One cause of both revolutions was that people from all social classes were discontented.
The Age of Revolutions was a period of time in which many global revolutions took place, especially within America and Europe. A revolution is an overthrow of government or social order in favour of political change. There were many revolutions that took place between 1760 and 1840, most notable being the American Revolution from 1775 to 1783, and the French Revolution beginning in 1789 and ending in 1799. These, along with the Napoleonic Empire, which carried on from the French Revolution and lasted until 1815; all greatly transformed the Atlantic world. This occurred through these global revolutions, which inspired another revolution within the slave island of Haiti. The focus of this essay will be on the aforementioned revolutions,
...eir escape from being enslaved by the Kona and thus revolution. However, Mitchell shows revolution is not a feasible option despite Somni-451’s words, ‘[Fantasy. Lunacy] All revolutions are, until they happen, then they are historical inevitabilities’. Linguistically, a “revolution” can be derived from the fourteenth century Latin ‘revolvere’, meaning “turn, roll back” , perhaps a more apt definition than the violent one Marx proposed. So Mitchell illustrates the relevance and impact of Marxism in a myriad of different societies. Those which Marx himself commented on and those which many thought would make Marxism wholly irrelevant; Mitchell illustrates that even the most advanced, technological societies contain conflict based on production. Cloud Atlas is all at once a millennia spanning a journey and an ode to the persistence of the ‘spectre haunting Europe’.
Revolutions are a prevalent part of world history and have shaped our world into what it is today. The French and the Bolshevik revolutions serve as just two examples of the many revolutions throughout history that have brought about changes to their respective countries. Both of these revolutions had distinct causes and were stimulated by other revolutions in the past. Since these two revolutions happened many years apart, with the French Revolution in the late sixteenth century and the Bolshevik Revolution in the early twentieth century, the ideologies behind them were somewhat different. The people went the extremes in both countries to bring about the desired changes. The revolutions were both radical because of the shortage of food and the uprising of the people. In both revolutions, there is a quest for change and the citizens were willing to go as far as they needed to go to make that change, even if it meant the people had to overthrow their leaders.
Jones, Barry A. "Resisting The Power Of Empire: The Theme Of Resistance In The Book Of
Throughout history, revolutions have started because of new ideas that change thinking and disrupt what has come to be considered normal. During 1700s, the American, French, and Haitian Revolutions were no exception. The Enlightenment ideas that were spreading around this time lead people of these three nations to question their ruling elites, and to begin considering breaking free. Of these three, though, no one revolt can be seen as more radical when compared to the other two. Each was faced with the challenging task of successfully separating from the oppression that had been brought upon them by to powerful empires and monarchies who had lost sight of what the American, French, and Haitian people alike considered important, as well as being some of the first revolts to use radical Enlightenment ideas to justify each of their rebellions. They considered these rebellions their one shot at being able to break free.
Paul Hawken, in the chapter “Blessed Unrest,” records the people of a new social movement, as well as their ideals, goals, and principles. He writes how they are connected, along with the diversity and differences they bring to make the social movement unique. Hawken communicates to the readers the various social, environmental, and political problems they will encounter in today’s world as well as similar problems of the past. Problems that these groups of organizations are planning to undertake with the perseverance of humanity.
----- "Civil Disobedience" from A World of Ideas - Essential Readings for College Readers, Lee A. Jacobus, Bedford Books, 1998, 1849(123 -146)