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Course Catalog > Courses: Winter

IN-PERSON: Revolution! Has Radical Political Change Ever Worked?   

**This class will be taught In-Person**

The Beatles famously asked if we really “want a revolution.” But what’s a revolution, anyway? How do  revolutions start? Does it have to be quick? Or successful? How much has to change? Does it need to be  violent? We will explore the theory and practice of political/ideological revolutions in the modern world.  We will stop in London in 1689, Boston in 1775, Paris in 1789, St. Petersburg in 1918, Djakarta in 1947,  Cairo in 1952, Moscow and Prague in 1990, Tunis in 2011, and a host of other places and times. Are we  done with them or are they merely unpredictable?  

Week by Week Outline 

1) Introduction: Course Overview, What is a “revolution”? What are the different kinds? Are there any  patterns? How do they start…and finish? What do they mean?  

2) Early Modern Revolutions: English (17C) and American (18C); Why were there no revolutions  earlier? 

3) The French Revolution and its 19C echoes 

4) Revolutions in the early 20C: Catching up with Modernity; Mexico China, Persia, Russia 5) Global Revolutions in the 20C:  

a. Rejecting the West (Fascism, decolonization, China (1949), and Iran (1979) 

b. Rejoining the West (Southern Europe in the 1970s, End of Communism 

6) Revolutions in the 21C 

a. Arab Spring and Afghanistan 

b. Can we have revolutions anymore? 

 
  • IN-PERSON: Revolution! Has Radical Political Change Ever Worked?
  • Fee: $125.00
    Dates: 1/30/2025 - 3/6/2025
    Times: 12:30 PM - 2:30 PM
    Days: Th
    Sessions: 6
    Building: Downtown Campus; 160 Spear St
    Room: 505
    Instructor: Steve Harris
    Seats Available: 22

    **This class will be taught In-Person**

    The Beatles famously asked if we really “want a revolution.” But what’s a revolution, anyway? How do  revolutions start? Does it have to be quick? Or successful? How much has to change? Does it need to be  violent? We will explore the theory and practice of political/ideological revolutions in the modern world.  We will stop in London in 1689, Boston in 1775, Paris in 1789, St. Petersburg in 1918, Djakarta in 1947,  Cairo in 1952, Moscow and Prague in 1990, Tunis in 2011, and a host of other places and times. Are we  done with them or are they merely unpredictable?  

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