Suchergebnisse

Revolution" belongs to that expanding list of English words whose multiple meanings make any precise usage elusive, if not impossible. The misuse and abuse of the term "revolution" in ordinary communication is enough of a problem, but the flexibility of the term in scholarly writings makes reasonable discourse across disciplinary lines a monumental task.Humanists, social scientists, and natural scientists have contributed in various ways to the ambiguity of the word. Invite three theologians, let's say, to discuss "revolution in the modern world" and witness the use of the same grammatical substantive to describe ecclesiastical reform, or any given number of societal changes, or the violent overthrow of an established political regime. Under such circumstances communication is as difficult as it is for a trio of recent immigrants engaged in a conversation that includes the English word "rose," each having reached the separate conclusion that the speaker is referring to a flower, or a color, or an action just performed.

Universal suffrage is a commonplace in today's political world. In modern Western states it seems self-explanatory that there should be a general right to vote, or at least the pretense of such a right; and it is rather the exception to universal suffrage that requires explanation—at best as a quaint local peculiarity, at worst as a sign of pigheadedness or paranoia. In our era of bland populism, it is easy to forget the nineteenth century's passion over suffrage matters. But passion there was: from the sanscullottes of the 1790's to the suffragettes of the 1910's, no decade of the nineteenth century, no part of the Atlantic world was entirely free from this all-important question. Indeed suffrage issues erupted regularly whenever and wherever internal political tensions ran highest. Anti-Bourbon agitation in Restoration France, Chartist demands in England, Negro emancipation in the United States, demands for reform of Bismarckian Germany's Prussian heartland—these issues spanned the century, and they all contained at least some taint of the suffrage question. The European revolutions of 1848–49 came roughly at the mid-point of this century-long suffrage debate, and these revolutions too raised in various ways the issue of the right to vote. And one of the most interesting discussions of the franchise question came in February and March of 1849, when Germany's abortive constitutional convention, the Frankfurt National Assembly, turned its attention to an Electoral Law for the lower house of the projected national representative body.

A critique is offered of the reading of Karl Marx's The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte by Jeffrey Mehlman (Revolution and Repetition, U of California Press, 1977) as an illustration of the problems of ahistorical analyses. Mehlman's structuralist analysis specifically defines Marx as pre-Freudian, but disregards the institutional context of writings that elicited this judgment: the censorship that these writing themselves discuss. The Eighteenth Brumaire, though ostensibly concerned with Napoleon III, was written in German & published in New York; its tacit or Aesopian content is a critique of Friedrich Wilhelm IV of Prussia through parallels with Napoleon III. This reading illustrates the possibility of placing structuralist readings in historical context. W. H. Stoddard.

Humanities Open Book Program, a joint initiative of the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation ; Peking ceded Formosa to Japan in 1895, whereupon Japan became the first Asian power in modern times to possess a colony, and the island became a testing ground for imperial policies. For two centuries the Formosan Chinese had resisted authority imposed upon them by inefficient continental Chinese. Now, Tokyo extended to insular Formosa many organizing, modernizing measures characterizing Japan's own vigorous Meiji Revolution. During the next fifty years, as living standards rose to approach those of Japan proper, early leaderless Formosan resistance to alien rule developed into organized appeals for effective representation in local government and at Tokyo. With reversion to continental Chinese control at the end of World War II, Formosans expected to conserve and enhance gains made during the Japanese era. Bitter disappointment promptly led again to rebellious relations with the continent. The author, long resident in Formosa and exclusively concerned with Formosan affairs while in government service during and after World War II, is well qualified to comment upon Formosa's history and prospects. He concludes that the Japanese era left an ineradicable mark upon the island people, an understanding of which will illuminate developments when Peking later undertakes the formidable task of converting Formosa into a fully disciplined and integrated province of the People's Republic of China.

Internal Developments: BANGLADESH: Lawrence Lifschultz: Bangladesh : The Unfinished Revolution. PAKISTAN: Shahid Javed Burki : Pakistan Under Bhutto 1971–77. THE GULF: Surendra Bhutani, Ed. : Contemporary Gulf. THE GULF: E. Burke Inlow: Shahanshah: A Study of the Monarchy of Iran. CHINA: Govind Kelkar : China After Mao: A Report on Socialist Development. NEPAL: Leo E. Rose and John T. Scholz: Nepal : Profile of a Himalayan Kingdom.

Until recent years, scholars of modern China had generally assumed that in the Cultural Revolution violence of 1966–68 young people were almost arbitrarily joining one or the other of the opposing Red Guard groups. Only within the past few years have researchers begun to unveil the antagonism among students early in the Cultural Revolution over "class" issues and the resulting differences in the composition, tactics and goals of the Red Guard factions.

A comprehensive analysis of the recent past must start with an understanding of the major, interrelated issues currently confronting China's leaders. These include- a wide range of economic, national security, and cultural concerns. Another key area involves personnel management. Were the officials removed during the Cultural Revolution justly treated or ought their verdicts be reversed? If so, should all officials be returned or just some? And which ones? More generally, should a regular promotion ladder be established, or should young, exuberant but inexperienced cadres continue to be rapidly, promoted, as during 1966–69? Should service in the bureaucracy and exit from it be made more predictable? This essay focuses on vthe origins and implications of these personnel issues. For, while other issues have also been important, crucial points of debate and struggle since 1969 have been over the rehabilitation of cadres who were removed during the Cultural Revolution and over the role to be assigtfcd to those who rose to power at their expense.