THE FRENCH REVOLUTION AND THE BIRTH OF MODERNITY / Vol. 56, No. 1 (Spring 1989)
- Social Research An Int'l Quarterly
- Apr 1, 1989
- 2 min read
Updated: Feb 1, 2023
Ferenc Feher, Guest Editor
Arien Mack, Editor
[reprinted in 70th Anniversary issue, 71:3]
"To entertain any theory about revolution," writes John Dunn, "and it is not even possible to identify just what events do constitute revolutions without assuming some theory about the meaning of revolution-is to assume a political posture....The value-free study of revolutions is a logical impossibility for those who live in the real world."
This paper analyzes the French Revolution as a significant event in the history of the modern world-system, suggesting that it transformed the "cultural apparatus" of the international system by creating the "ideological transformation of the capitalist world-economy."
This paper examines the French Revolution as "a prototype for later social-revolutionary transformations in very different times and places within the modern world." Patterns established by the French Revolution influenced subsequent international and national radical changes.
This paper discusses the relationship between the French Revolution and the subsequent development of the French state and considers the role played by revolutionary and Napoleonic France in the transformation of Europe, which included a "series of antibourgeois counterrevolutions."
This paper notes the social organization of French society during the Old Regime and evaluates the impact of the Revolution on the restructuring of French social classes, cultural values, and political institutions.
This paper discusses French author and diplomat Alexis de Tocqueville's interpretation of the French Revolution in his Ancien Régime et la Révolution (1856), noting his efforts to understand contemporary political events by studying the earlier revolutionary era.
This paper considers the possible indirect impact of the ideas of German philosopher Immanuel Kant (1724–1804) on some of the leaders of the French Revolution. Indicates that various political concepts of Kant were reflected in certain laws and policies in revolutionary France.
This paper evaluates the political philosophy of Louis de Saint-Just (1767–94), one of the leaders of the French Revolution, noting his concept of the revolutionary hero, which he discussed in his various writings.
This paper discusses the debates in revolutionary France over the political status of Jews, which touched upon issues of nationality, citizenship, political representation, and the secular nature of the state.
This paper assesses German philosopher Georg Hegel's interpretation of the French Revolution and its influence on his political theories of individual participation and representative institutions. The author also considers Hegel's concept of the revolutionary hero.
This paper provides a sociological analysis of violence in the French Revolution, noting the varities of violent behavior, including popular violence and the state's monopolization of the legal use of violence.