Part 25

_III. The Marxists_

There is no doubt that Marx and his followers have made great contributions to our understanding of revolutions--contributions almost as great as those they have made to the making of revolutions. We cannot, however, regard even the best Marxist writing as an altogether satisfactory approach to the scientific study of revolutions. Indeed their use of the sacred word “science” resembles in many ways the use made of the same word by the disciples of Mary Baker Eddy. Marxist thought is a mixture of useful and genuinely objective observations properly framed as uniformities, and of prophecies, moral exhortations, theological and philosophical speculation, and other elements we may loosely call propaganda. The concept of the class struggle, for instance, belongs to the first sort; in itself, it is a fruitful notion, and one which has enriched sociology, in spite of the exaggerations and simplicities with which it has been applied by many Marxists. The notion of the dictatorship of the proletariat belongs in a sense to both sorts; it is a useful lead in the study of past revolutions, but it is also in Marxist hands an ideal, a goal, a prophecy. Finally, the notion of the classless society is almost wholly a bit of theology or, more specifically, eschatology.

In any given work by a Marxist, the disentanglement of what we may call the _scientific_ elements from what we may call, with an equal desire to use good rather than bad words, the _moralistic_ elements is almost as difficult as a similar operation on the work of the classical economists. In each case it has to be made separately. We need here only caution against certain of the more specific forms in which Marxist moral fervor and good intentions may be found distorting their work as scientists.

First there is pure fervor, writing obviously intended for the faithful, writing which from its very form is clearly a kind of rhapsody. Then there is writing definitely aimed at achieving a specific revolutionary end, writing closely aimed at action, writing not even meant by the writer to be detached and objective. There is the much-too-simple application of formulas and clichés to specific situations. Much of this writing is sincere and earnest, and the writers really believe that they are applying scientific methods to sociological problems. The narrow application of the economic interpretation of history is a very frequent example of this kind of thing. All human action is by the more innocent Marxists interpreted as the logical application of economic interests to a concrete situation. It must be said in fairness to Marx, Engels, and their greater followers that they are not themselves usually guilty of such unrealistic simplification.

Finally, current Marxist writing is confused by the number of sects that have developed within the movement, each one claiming to be orthodox. Of the sect which in a _de facto_ way can most clearly claim orthodoxy, that established in power in Russia today, one may say that it represents a kind of hardening of doctrine, a fixation of theory into dogma which may in the long run permit a good deal more actual open-mindedness and experiment than is now possible. In the meantime official Marxism has become a conservative and established belief--which may well explain why in America good rebels like Mr. Max Eastman and subtle but conscientious theorists like Mr. Kenneth Burke are so worried over its inadequacies; have, indeed, begun a more radical “revisionism” than any yet attempted.

The literature is enormous, and we do not intend to do more than list below a few general elementary discussions of Marxism, and a few of the more important works of the great men in the tradition. We have deliberately chosen, wherever possible, works in which the concrete discussion of actual revolutions is more important than pure theory.

M. M. Bober, _Karl Marx’s Interpretation of History_. Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1927.

Max Eastman, _Marx and Lenin: The Science of Revolution_. New York, 1927.

Sidney Hook, _Towards the Understanding of Karl Marx_. New York, 1933.

H. J. Laski, _Communism_. New York, 1927.

A. D. Lindsay, _Karl Marx’s Capital: an introductory essay_. New ed. Oxford, 1937.

V. Pareto, _Les systèmes socialistes_. Paris, 1902.

[E. Burns], _A Handbook of Marxism_. New York, 1935. This is one of the most useful of the various collections of bits of the writings of the great Marxists. It includes some of the most important work of Marx, Engels, Lenin, and Stalin.

Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, _The Communist Manifesto_. Edited by D. Ryazanoff. London, 1930. The rich notes in this full-sized volume expand the brief original Manifesto into a critical commentary on Marxism.

Of Marx the following is a suggested beginning, neglecting entirely the ponderous _Capital: The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte_, _Revolution and Counter-Revolution, or Germany in 1848_, _Civil War in France_ (sometimes called the _Paris Commune_) and _The Poverty of Philosophy_.

Of Engels: _The Condition of the Working Class in England in 1844_, _Landmarks of Scientific Socialism_ (Anti-Dühring).

Of Lenin: _Imperialism_, _The State and Revolution_. (Both of these are in a handy single volume issued by the Vanguard Press, New York, 1926.)

_IV. The Sociology of Revolutions_

The following section contains a selected list of modern books on revolutions in general. Such writing is necessarily very varied indeed. Some of the books listed below are careful studies by trained sociologists; some are the work of cranks with a variety of cutting tools to grind; some, directly in the Marxist tradition, seem to belong here rather than in the preceding section because of their direct preoccupation with the sociology of revolutions. We have been obliged to be fairly narrow in our interpretation of the subject. In a sense almost everything that appears nowadays on social and political problems might be catalogued as dealing at some point with the sociology of revolutions. To take a wide and somewhat random choice of well-known figures, most of the important work of men like Spengler, H. G. Wells, Ortega y Gasset, and A. J. Toynbee touches upon the question of revolutions and social change. But a bibliography as inclusive as this would be pointless or endless. We have, therefore, simply made a choice of general books on the specific subject of the comparative study of revolution.

Brooks Adams, _The Theory of Social Revolutions_. New York, 1913. One of the earliest predictions of the decline of the West. Should be read with Mr. George Soule’s book below.

Arthur Bauer, _Essai sur les révolutions_. Paris, 1908. Approaches the problem from the psychology of the individual and his activity in crowds. Has an interesting conceptual scheme of revolutions as a general phenomenon.

C. Delisle Burns, _The Principles of Revolution_. London, 1920. From the point of view of modern anti-intellectualism, an unrealistic study of “rationalizations.”

L. P. Edwards, _The Natural History of Revolutions_. Chicago, 1927. Unpretentious, suggestive, tentative. One of the best introductions to the subject available in English. Mr. Edwards does not pretend to do more than sketch the essential problems and indicate possible further work. Admirably free from special pleading.

T. Geiger, _Die Masse und ihre Aktion: Ein Beitrag zur Soziologie der Revolutionen_. Stuttgart, 1926. A psychological study, with a Marxist tinge. To a non-German, a bit in the clouds.

H. M. Hyndman, _The Evolution of Revolution_. London, 1927. By one of the pioneers of Marxist Socialism in England. Not very illuminating nowadays.

G. Lebon, _The Psychology of Revolution_. English translation. New York, 1913. Lebon’s reputation as a social psychologist has sunk considerably. This is the work of a frightened anti-intellectualist.

Arthur Liebert, _Vom Geist der Revolutionen_. Berlin, 1919. A brief discussion of the rational and emotional origins of revolution, and an analysis of the crisis period.

Leon de Poncius, _Les forces secrètes de la révolution_. Paris, 1929. A good example of the kind of writing which attributes modern revolutions to wicked conspirators--in this case Jews and freemasons. For those who do not read French, the works of Mrs. Nesta Webster may be recommended as an adequate sample of this approach. See especially her _Secret Societies and Subversive Movements_, London, 1924, and _The French Revolution: A Study in Democracy_. New York, 1920.

C. Malaparte, _Coup d’état, the Technique of Revolution_. English translation, New York, 1932. An annoyingly bright young Italian Fascist intellectual writes on _the only_ way to make a revolution. As narrow and, in a perverted sense, idealistic as any Marxist writing.

E. D. Martin, _Farewell to Revolution_. New York, 1935. A very able and sensible writer on political and social problems has here allowed his fears to lead him into writing a bad book. Mr. Martin, as his choice of title indicates, is writing a book _against_ revolutions of all sorts. Hastily assembled from inadequate materials. Stands up badly in comparison with L. P. Edwards’s book above.

R. W. Postgate, _How to Make a Revolution_. New York, 1934. An English Leftist, formerly a Communist and now apparently just Labour, writes rather wistfully about the possibilities of a decent, respectable revolution in Western countries. A good deal of useful discussion of the techniques of modern revolutionary parties of the Left, with touches of very English humor.

_Revolution from 1789 to 1906._ London, 1920. Mr. Postgate has here made a handy collection of constitutions, bills of rights, manifestoes and similar documents touching the important revolutionary movements of the period.

S. A. Reeves, _The Natural Laws of Social Convulsions_. New York, 1933. A most ambitious attempt to apply the methods of the physical sciences to the subject. Mr. Reeves is not skeptical enough to be a scientist. He emerges with forty-five “natural” or “cosmic” laws, of which Law XLV is a not unfair example: “Man would rather Die, even in Prolonged Agony, than to Think.” The work of a doctrinaire person on the edge of the lunatic fringe, and much influenced by the position of men like Herbert Spencer, it has none the less a good deal of useful material.

E. Rosenstock-Hüssy, _Die europäische Revolutionen_. Jena, 1931. Written in what to an American seems the German cloud-cuckoo-land of beautiful and inexact ideas, choosing convenient and rejecting inconvenient facts, something in the tradition of Spengler, but with the kindly hopes of a man of good will. Full of interesting suggestions and flashes of insight, poetic to a prosaic nature. An English version by the author is promised.

S. D. Schmalhausen, Editor, _Recovery through Revolution_. New York, 1933. Chapters contributed by Louis Fischer, Harold Laski, Carleton Beals, Robert Briffault, G. Salvemini, and others. Rapid narrative accounts of the principal fields of revolutionary activity since the war, Germany, Russia, China, South America, Italy, and Spain.

H. See, _Evolution et révolutions_. Paris, 1929. A somewhat pedestrian examination of the English, French, and American revolutions, those of the nineteenth century and the Russian revolution. Excellent brief bibliographies for the revolutions discussed.

P. A. Sorokin, _Social and Cultural Dynamics_. Vol. III, _Fluctuations of Social Relationships, War and Revolutions_. New York, 1937. Mr. Sorokin’s general position is an emotional dislike for the contemporary world, which is, he thinks, about to undergo a worse series of wars and revolutions than any the human race has yet had to put up with. This Volume III has a most imposing set of statistics to show that revolutions have been more or less endemic in Western civilization. Some such conclusion might have been made safely without all these statistics, which in detail are not altogether reliable. They tend to exaggerate the amount of violence and bloodshed since 1900.

G. Soule, _The Coming American Revolution_. New York, 1934. A thoughtful, temperate book written by one of the more temperate of American “liberals.” The book deals much more widely with the general subject of revolutions than its title would indicate.

INDEX

Abbott, Professor W. C., 29

Abortive revolution, 33, 34

Adams, John, 156

Adams, Sam, 53, 59, 104, 116, 124, 135, 297

_Agreement of the People, The_, 198

Albemarle, 250, 261

All-Russian Central Executive Committee, 207

All-Russian Congress of Soviets, 207

American Civil War, 33

American Revolution, 34, 50, 84, 88, 100, 106, 155, 165, 195, 216, 229

Anabaptists, 154

Antinomians, 154

Antonov-Ovseënko, 127

Arnold, Matthew, 57

Articles of Confederation, the, 253

Asceticism, 227

Assembly of Notables, the, 89

Babeuf, 215

Bacon, 27

Bagehot, 131

Bailly, 124, 134

Barebone, Praise-God, 214

Bastille Day, 92, 97, 98, 102, 289

Baxter, 120

Beaumarchais, 82

Bentham, Jeremy, 27, 235

Berkman, Alexander, 301

Bitzenko, Madame, 127

Blake, Admiral, 232, 250

Bolsheviks, 122, 128, 166, 180, 221, 268

Bonaparte, Napoleon, 247

Boston Massacre, 88

Boston Port Bill, 43

Boston Tea Party, 46, 88, 104

Brest-Litovsk, 127

Brissot, 124, 157

Brissotins, 157

Brusilov, 123

Bunker Hill, 97

Burke, Edmund, 47

Cabarrus, Teresia de, 261

Cagliostro, 77

Camus, 124

Career open to talent, 75

Carlyle, 57

Carrier, 137

Cassandra, 81

Catherine the Great, 216

Cavaliers, 68

Ceremonial, 214, 235

Chamberlin, W. H., 198, 204, 210, 238

Charles I, 50, 51, 84, 106, 109

Charles II, 259

Chase, Stuart, 27

Chaucer, 29

Cheka, 133, 137, 207

Chicherin, 116, 127

Chkheidze, 170

Cicero, 31

Civil Constitution of the Clergy, the, 172

Class struggle, 64, 71, 79, 222, 240

Cochin, A., 53, 98

Coleridge, 193

Comité de surété générale, 207

Comités révolutionnaires, 207

Committee of Public Safety, 206

Committees of Correspondence, 104

Communist party, the, 182, 188

Compromisists, 123, 159, 170

Comsomol, 227

Conceptual scheme, 17, 23, 25, 244, 292

Concord, 97, 289

Condorcet, 124, 133, 176

Conservative revolution, 32

Continental Congress, 89, 156

Convention, the, 207

Criminals and revolution, 139, 209

Cromwell, 69, 125, 137, 143, 189, 190, 191, 245, 247, 251

Danton, 124, 157, 197, 201, 284

Desmoulins, 124

Diaz, Porfirio, 36

Dictatorship, 34, 200, 248

Digby, 172

Diggers, 126, 152, 204

Disorder, endemic, 38

Downing, 250, 261

Du Barry, Madame, 77

Dubois, Abbé, 77

Dzerzhinsky, Felix, 127, 133

Economic change, 276

Economic motivation, 47, 70, 79, 129, 223, 239

Economic prosperity, 41

Economic want, 41, 43

Edwards, Lyford P., 55

Eliot, Sir John, 85

Emigration, 260

English Revolution, 40, 50, 72, 84, 85, 100, 106, 151, 164, 195, 197, 202, 214, 245, 259, 263

_Enragés_, the, 205

Episcopalians, 151

Equilibrium, 24, 33, 295

Essex, 69, 116

Estates-General, the, 90

Everard, Robert, 126

Falkland, 172, 176

February Revolution, 92, 103, 122, 289

Feuillants, 153, 165, 169

Fifth Monarchy Men, 152

Figaro, 82

Force, use of, 106

Ford, Henry, 75

Foreign war, role of, 175, 238

Fouché, 192, 251, 256, 261

Fourier, 15

France, Anatole, 213

Freemasons, 53

French Revolution, 40, 48, 84, 89, 107, 117, 165, 185, 194, 199, 201, 215, 245, 255, 258, 262

French revolutionary calendar, 215

Freud, 46

Friends of Peace, 170

Gage, 88, 107

_Gaspee_, the, 88

George III, 51, 100, 109

Gironde, 157

Girondins, the, 153, 169

Gogol, 275

Gooch, Professor G. P., 60, 204

Goodwin, John, 203

Gorki, 216, 219, 250

Gottschalk, Professor L. R., 134

Grand Duke Michael, 94

Grand Remonstrance, 87

Graydon, Alexander, 122

Grierson, Professor, 59, 195

Guchkov, 126

Gwyn, Nell, 261

Hampden, John, 40, 69, 87, 116

Hancock, John, 47, 116

Hare, John, 204

Haselrig, 87

_Heads of the Proposals, The_, 198

Hébert, 116, 201

_Hébertistes_, 205

Henderson, Professor L. J., 19

Henry, Patrick, 95, 145

d’Herbois, Collot, 137

Historical method, 21, 22

Holles, Denzil, 86, 87, 148, 177

Holmby House, 155, 197

Homosexuality, 281

House of Commons, five members of, 87

Hutchinson, Governor, 121

Hutchinson, Mrs. Lucy, 72

Hutton, Barbara, 287

Hyde, 172

Idealism and revolution, 217

Idealists and revolution, 142, 190

Ideas, role of, 63

Independents, 54, 140, 152, 172, 180, 202

Induction, 17

Industrial Revolution, 35

Ireton, 125, 252

Jacobins, 117, 123, 129, 165, 168, 180, 188, 194, 212, 219, 221, 234

James I, 49

Jameson, J. F., 121, 223

Jefferson, 101, 190, 284

Joffe, 127

Johnson, Mrs. Francis, 225

“July Days,” 168

Kadets, 123, 149, 153, 159, 289

Kalinin, 127

Kamenev, 126, 127

_Kapital, Das_, 129, 221, 284

Karakhan, 127

Kerensky, 92, 103, 116, 126, 159, 168, 170, 176, 189

Kimbolton, Lord, 87

Konavalov, 116, 134

Kornilov, 160

Ku Klux Klan, 185

Lafayette, 65, 67, 90, 112, 116, 124, 128, 132, 148, 157

Lameths, the, 124, 157

Laud, 84

Lavoisier, 124

Law, John, 47

Leaders, revolutionary, 124

League of the Militant Godless, 257

Lenin, 115, 116, 126, 144, 160, 189, 190, 191, 199, 219, 226, 235, 246, 252, 284, 297

Lenthall, 95

Le Play, 279

Lerner, Max, 15

Levellers, 152, 199

Lewis, Sinclair, 75

Lilburne, John, 62, 125, 140

Linde, Fedor, 148

Long Parliament, 86, 97, 106

Louis XV, 49

Louis XVI, 107, 109

Ludlow, 125

Lunacharsky, 145, 160

Lunatic fringe, 139

Lvov, Prince, 126, 159

Lyons, Eugene, 265, 267

Machiavelli, 27

Machinery of government, 238

Madison, 175

Maitland, F. W., 193

Malesherbes, 52

Marat, 116, 124, 134, 197, 201, 235

Marie Antoinette, 287

Marston Moor, 151

Marten, Henry, 141

Martin, E. D., 272

Marx, Karl, 39, 115, 224, 235, 254, 296

Marxists, 28, 46, 61, 129, 167, 176, 221, 224, 275, 300

Mathiez, Albert, 252

Maximum, Law of the, 209

Mencken, H. L., 225

Mensheviks, 123, 149, 159

Mercier, L. S., 78

Merriman, Professor R. B., 48

Military Revolution Committee, 197

Militia Order, 189

Miliukov, 116, 123, 126, 148, 159

Mill, 57

Millenarians, 204, 234

Miller, J. C., 136

Milton, John, 72, 116, 284

Minorities, role of, 182

Mirabeau, 91, 95, 99, 124, 133, 157, 176, 189

Molasses Act, 45

Molière, 131

Monge, 124

Montaigne, 301

Morison, Professor S. E., 125

Morley, Christopher, 29

Morris, 57

Mounier, 157

Mountain, 157

Muir, Ramsay, 42

Napoleon, 107, 250

Narodniks, 159

Naseby, 151

National Assembly, 91

Nationalism, 232, 254

Nationalistic revolution, 34

Natural law, 61

Navigation Act, 44, 45

Necker, 52, 90, 98, 102

New Economic Policy, 265

Newman, 57

New Model Army, 120, 152, 154, 164, 172, 182, 187

Nicholas II, 93, 109

October revolution, 160, 171, 197

Order Number One, 173

d’Orléans, Duc, 102, 124, 134

Paine, Thomas, 116, 130

Pareto, V., 24, 27, 75

Parliament, Short, 86

Paris Commune of 1871, 33

Pâris-Duverney, 47, 77

Parlements, 89

Parliament of Saints, 199

Peasantry, 73

_Peggy Stewart_, the, 88

Pétion, 157

Petition of Right, 85

Petrovsky, 238

Pettee, Dr. George, 46

Philosophes, 58, 60

Pitt, William, 225

Plato, 81

Plebiscites, 186, 289

Poincaré, H., 21

Pokrovsky, 127

Presbyterians, 120, 140, 152, 165, 172

Pressure groups, 52, 53, 54, 99, 185

Preston Pans, 155

Pride’s Purge, 155, 171

Proletariat, 73, 74

Propaganda, 27, 62, 168

Protopopov, 66

Puritans, 129, 139, 224

Pym, 87, 116, 176

Quebec Act, 45, 88

Rasputin, 78

Religious symbolism, 236

Renaming, 214

Revolution, abortive, 33, 34; American, 34, 50, 84, 88, 100, 106, 155, 165, 195, 216, 229; conservative, 32; criminals and, 139, 209; definitions of, 35; English, 40, 50, 72, 84, 85, 100, 106, 151, 164, 195, 197, 202, 214, 245, 259, 263; February, 92, 103, 122, 289; French, 40, 48, 84, 89, 107, 117, 165, 185, 194, 199, 201, 215, 245, 255, 258, 262; idealism and, 217; idealists and, 142, 190; nationalistic, 34; October, 160, 171, 197; Russian, 40, 51, 84, 85, 92, 100, 108, 158, 165, 184, 194, 197, 199, 202, 216, 246, 256, 265; territorial, 33

Revolutions of 1848, 33

Revolutionary proselyters, 232

Revolutionist, clichés about, 114

Richelieu, 260

Rivarol, 73

Robespierre, 124, 142, 157, 189, 190, 191, 197, 201, 245, 252, 283, 297

Rogers, John, 126

Roland, Madame, 72, 124

Root-and-Branch Bill, 172

Rousseau, 63

Ruling class, 64, 278

Rump, 155, 199, 207, 245

Russian revolution, 40, 51, 84, 85, 92, 100, 108, 158, 165, 184, 194, 197, 199, 202, 216, 246, 256, 265

Sade, Marquis de, 138

Sainte-Beuve, 131

St. Huruge, Marquis de, 133

St. Simon, Comte de, 215

Schlesinger, Professor Arthur M., 44, 156

Scientific method, 16, 30

Self-denying ordinance, 172

Sexby, Edward, 125, 233

Shaftesbury, 250

Shays’s Rebellion, 270

Shelley, 115, 133

Ship Money, 54

Short Parliament, 86

Siéyès, 62

Signers of Declaration of Independence, 124

Smith, Adam, 46

Social change, 278

Socialist-Revolutionary party, 123, 149, 159

Sociétés de pensée, 53

Society for Encouraging Trade and Commerce with the Province of Massachusetts Bay, 104

Sokolov, N. D., 174

Sons of Liberty, 84, 104, 121, 188, 212

Sovereignty, problem of, 161

Spencer, H., 15

Stalin, 127, 168, 216, 219, 236, 246, 247, 250, 257, 266, 269

Stamp Act, 42, 44, 45

_Stewart_, the _Peggy_, 88

Stoddard, Lothrop, 128

Stolypin, 52

Strachey, Lytton, 203

Strafford, 51, 84, 97

Strode, 87

Sukharevka Market, 209

Sverdlov, 127

Taine, 73

Talleyrand, 116, 133, 261

Tallien, 263

Talma, 77

Tammany Hall, 185

Tawney, R. H., 226

Tax reform, 45

Tennyson, 57

Tereschenko, 126, 134

Theophrastus, 29, 131

Théot, Catherine, 205

Third Estate, 90

Thucydides, 27, 294

Tocqueville, A. de, 273

Townshend, 88

Trevelyan, Professor G. M., 202

Trotsky, 44, 100, 103, 126, 130, 144, 160, 183, 185, 192, 194, 219, 246, 252, 283, 285

Trudoviks, 159

Tseretelli, 145, 170

Turgenev, 58

Turgot, 45, 52

Uniformities, 36, 96, 105, 167, 201, 206, 244, 247, 271, 274, 286, 299

Valentine, 86

Vallée, Rudy, 75

Vane, Sir Harry, 116, 250

Vergniaud, 145

Violence, role of, 92, 138, 179, 212, 237

Voltaire, 77

Washington, George, 45, 69, 116, 137, 247

Washington, Laurence, 223

Watteau, 77

Webb, Sidney and Beatrice, 227, 265

Weber, Max, 226

Webster, Mrs. Nesta, 67

Wells, H. G., 178

Westminster Assembly, 153

Winstanley, 125, 126

Wordsworth, 111

Zinoviev, 145

* * * * *

Transcriber’s Notes:

Variations in spelling and hyphenation were retained as they appear in the original publication, except that obvious typographical errors have been corrected.

Punctuation has been made consistent.