Reconsidering the English, French, and Russian Revolutions, this book offers an important new approach to the theoretical and comparative study of revolutions. Bailey Stone proposes an innovative "neostructuralist" integration of competing structuralist and postmodernist theory. Providing a balanced and nuanced critique of both sides, he presents new ways of understanding radical change in the European polities that created the concept-and the dramatic realities-of modern revolution. He focuses on the central issues of modernizers versus traditionalists, old regime bourgeoisies, regicides, terror, and state legitimacy. By reconciling political and cultural theories of revolutionary causation and process, Stone's synthesis marks a critical advance in our understanding of revolution.
Bailey Stone is professor emeritus of European history and international affairs at the University of Houston. His books include The Genesis of the French Revolution, Reinterpreting the French Revolution, and The Anatomy of Revolution Revisited: A Comparative Analysis of England, France, and Russia. He is currently a faculty research associate at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and a member of the Five Colleges International Relations Faculty Seminar.
Acknowledgments Introduction: Structuralism, Postmodernism, and-Neostructuralism? 1 Modernizers versus Traditionalists in the European Revolutions 2 In Search of the Elusive Ancien Regime Bourgeoisie 3 To Kill a Monarch: From Proceduralism to Revolutionary Raison d'Etat 4 Circumstances versus Ideas in the Revolutionary "Furies" 5 Crises of Revolutionary Legitimacy: Thermidorian Outcomes Conclusion: Neostructuralism and the Postrevolutionary State as Historical Problem Suggestions for Further Reading Notes Index
What a terrific book! While rigidly 'structuralist' and 'postmodernist' scholars of revolutions have vehemently attacked each other, leading to narrow and sometimes illogical views, Stone is able to keep a balanced perspective of both sides. Keeping close to the details of what actually occurred in key cases, Stone offers nuanced criticism of both views and produces a creative synthesis. This is the most important book in the theoretical and comparative study of European revolutions that I have seen in years. -- Jack A. Goldstone, George Mason University A worthy companion to theBailey Stone's The Anatomy of Revolution Revisited, this provocative book makes a strong case for taking a balanced, 'neostructuralist' approach to the English, French, and Russian Revolutions by applying it to five critical issues that have arisen in the recent literature. Accessible to general readers while engaging specialists, the book provides illuminating revisits of long-debated matters, such as the role of the bourgeoisie, as well as fascinating tours of less-familiar territory, such as the juridical foundations of revolutionary regicide. -- Thomas Kaiser, University of Maryland and emeritus, University of Arkansas at Little Rock
