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Abstract/Syllabus:
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Ravel, Jeffrey S., Meg Jacobs, Peter C. Perdue, and William Broadhead, 21H.001 How to Stage a Revolution, Fall 2007. (Massachusetts Institute of Technology: MIT OpenCourseWare), http://ocw.mit.edu (Accessed 10 Jul, 2010). License: Creative Commons BY-NC-SA
Fall 2007
"A revolution is not a dinner party, or writing an essay, or doing embroidery; it cannot be so refined, so leisurely and gentle, so temperate, kind, courteous, restrained and magnanimous." - Mao Zedong, 1927. (Image by Prof. William Broadhead, Prof. Meg Jacobs, Prof. Peter Perdue, and Prof. Jeffrey Ravel.)
Course Highlights
This course features archived syllabi from various semesters.
Course Description
21H.001, a HASS-D, CI course, explores fundamental questions about the causes and nature of revolutions. How do people overthrow their rulers? How do they establish new governments? Do radical upheavals require bloodshed, violence, or even terror? How have revolutionaries attempted to establish their ideals and realize their goals? We will look at a set of major political transformations throughout the world and across centuries to understand the meaning of revolution and evaluate its impact. By the end of the course, students will be able to offer reasons why some revolutions succeed and others fail. Materials for the course include the writings of revolutionaries, declarations and constitutions, music, films, art, memoirs, and newspapers.
Syllabus
Syllabus Archive
The following syllabi come from a variety of different terms. They illustrate the evolution of this course over time, and are intended to provide alternate views into the instruction of this course.
Fall 2008, William Broadhead, Jeffrey Ravel, and Elizabeth Wood
Introduction
21H.001, a HASS-D, CI course, explores fundamental questions about the causes and nature of revolutions. How do people overthrow their rulers? How do they establish new governments? Do radical upheavals require bloodshed, violence, or even terror? How have revolutionaries attempted to establish their ideals and realize their goals? We will look at a set of major political transformations throughout the world and across centuries to understand the meaning of revolution and evaluate its impact. By the end of the course, students will be able to offer reasons why some revolutions succeed and others fail. Materials for the course include the writings of revolutionaries, declarations and constitutions, music, films, art, memoirs, and newspapers.
This class is a hybrid of lectures and seminars. Each week students will attend lectures as a whole group and also attend sections, which will all be led by faculty members. All lectures and recitations are mandatory as is regular participation.
Grading
Final grades will be calculated on the following basis:
Grading criteria.
| ACTIVITIES |
PERCENTAGES |
| Three papers (15% each) |
45% |
| Quizzes |
15% |
| Final exam |
20% |
| Class participation |
20% |
In keeping with the HASS-D, CI requirements, students will write at least twenty pages, revise at least one paper, and give oral presentations.
The readings for the class are from a combination of books and shorter documents. The books are available at the MIT Server and the documents are available in the readings section.
Aristotle. Athenian Constitution.
Fitzpatrick, Sheila. The Russian Revolution. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2008. ISBN: 9780199237678.
Spence, Jonathan D. Mao Zedong, A Life. New York, NY: Viking, 1999. ISBN: 9780670886692.
Harrison, Henrietta. The Man Awakened From Dreams: One Man's Life in a North China Village, 1857-1942. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2005. ISBN: 9780804750691.
Cheek, Timothy. Mao Zedong and China's Revolutions: A Brief History with Documents. Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2002. ISBN: 9780312256265.
Reagan, Ronald, et al. Reagan In His Own Hand. New York, NY: The Free Press, 2001. ISBN: 9780743219389.
In addition to the required books above, you may also like to consult the following books:
Wood, Gordon S. The American Revolution, A History. New York, NY: Modern Library, 2002. ISBN: 9780679640578.
Popkin, Jeremy D. A Short History of the French Revolution. 4th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2005. ISBN: 9780131930377.
Ehrrman, John. The Eighties: America in the Age of Reagan. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2005. ISBN: 9780300106626.
Calendar
| SES # |
TOPICS |
KEY DATES |
| Part One: Introduction |
| Week 1: What is a Revolution? |
| 1 |
Introduction |
|
| 2 |
Recitation: definitions of revolution |
|
| Part Two: Inventing the People |
| Weeks 2-4: Athenian Revolution |
| 3 |
Introduction to inventing the people |
|
| 4 |
Oligarchy, democracy, and tyranny: 600-400 BC |
|
| 5 |
Recitation: metastasis and revolution in the Athenian Constitution |
|
| 6 |
The emergence of the Athenian demos: 594 BC |
|
| 7 |
Popular action and constitutional reform: 508/7 BC |
|
| 8 |
Recitation: when is a democracy not a democracy? |
|
| 9 |
Democracy top to bottom: 462-450 BC |
|
| 10 |
Recitation: How Revolting? Wallace vs. Ober vs. Raaflaub |
|
| Weeks 5-6: Atlantic Revolutions |
| 11 |
American Revolution |
Paper 1 due |
| 12 |
French Revolution |
|
| 13 |
Recitation: declarations of rights: America and France |
|
| 14 |
Haitian Revolution |
|
| 15 |
Recitation: framing constitutions in the U.S., France, and Haiti |
|
| Part Three: Inventing the Modern State |
| Weeks 7-8: Russian Revolution |
| 16 |
Introduction to inventing the modern state: empires, states, and peoples in Russia and China |
Paper 1 revisions due |
| 17 |
Russia's ancien regime; 19th century revolutionary traditions; the Revolution of 1905 |
|
| 18 |
Recitation: how European was the Russian Revolution? |
|
| 19 |
1917: the Bolshevik seizure of power |
|
| 20 |
The Bolsheviks consolidate their rule; the end of revolution? 1917-1926 |
|
| 21 |
Recitation: who led the revolution, the Party or the masses? |
|
| Weeks 9-11: Chinese Revolution |
| 22 |
The Qing dynasty and Western imperialism |
|
| 23 |
The collapse of the Qing and creation of the Republic, 1911-1927 |
|
| 24 |
Recitation: reform vs. revolution: a debate |
|
| 25 |
The Nationalist Party and the War of Resistance against Japan |
|
| 26 |
The Communist Party, the Yenan way, and the Civil War, 1927-1949 |
Paper 2 due |
| 27 |
Recitation: countryside and revolution: Nationalists and Communists |
|
| 28 |
The Maoist era, 1949-1976; reform and the end of revolution? |
|
| 29 |
Recitation: assessing Mao's legacy |
|
| Weeks 12-13: Reagan Revolution |
| 30 |
Introduction to reinventing revolution |
Paper 2 revisions due |
| 31 |
Revolt against liberalism |
|
| 32 |
Reaganomics |
|
| 33 |
Morning in America |
|
| 34 |
Recitation: Reagan revolution: myth or reality |
|
| Week 14: Other Revolutions? |
| 35 |
U.S. and the world |
Paper 3 due |
| 36 |
1989 |
|
| 37 |
Recitation: revolution in the global age |
|
| Week 15: Concluding Thoughts |
| 38 |
Revolution in the Middle East |
|
| 39 |
Panel discussion: the future of revolution? |
|
|
|
|
Further Reading:
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Readings
This section contains documents created from scanned original files, which are inaccessible to screen reader software. A "#" symbol is used to denote such documents.
| LEC # |
READINGS |
| 1-2 |
Aristotle. Politics. Book 5.1.
Webster, Noah. "Revolution." An American Dictionary of the English Language. 1st ed. New York, NY: S. Converse, 1828.
"Revolution." The Oxford English Dictionary. 2nd ed. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, 1989.
Williams, Raymond, ed. "Revolution." Keywords: A Vocabulary of Culture and Society. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1985. ISBM: 9780195204698.
Hawkes, James A. "Retrospect of the Boston Tea-Party, with a Memoir of George R. T. Hewes." From Commager, Henry Steele, and Richard B. Morris. The Spirit of Seventy-Six. New York, NY: Harper and Row, 1967. ISBN: 9780785814634.
Definitions of revolution
Marx, Karl, and Friedrich Engels. Excerpts from The Communist Manifesto. The Communist League, February 21, 1848. party
|
| 3-5 |
Pomeroy, Sarah B., et al. A Brief History of Ancient Greece: Politics, Society, and Culture. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2004, pp. 110-149. ISBN: 9780195156812.
Aristotle. The Athenian Constitution. Parts 1-41.
|
| 6 |
Plutarch. Life of Solon. Sections 1-3, 13-25.
Wallace, Robert W. "Revolutions and a New Order in Solonian Athens and Archaic Greece." Chapter 3 in Raaflaub, Kurt A., et al. Origins of Democracy in Ancient Greece. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2007. ISBN: 9780520245624.
|
| 7 |
"Herodotus." Histories. Book V, on Athens.
Ober, Josiah. "The Athenian Revolution of 508/7 B.C.: Violence, Authority, and the Origins of Democracy." Chapter 4 in The Athenian Revolution: Essays on Ancient Greek Democracy and Political Theory. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1998. ISBN: 9780691001906.
|
| 8 |
None |
| 9-10 |
Plutarch. Excerpts from Life of Cimon and Life of Pericles.
Raaflaub, Kurt A. "Power in the Hands of the People: Foundations of Athenian Democracy."; Ober, Josiah. "Revolution Matters: Democracy as Demotic Action (A Response to Kurt A. Raaflaub.)"; Raaflaub, Kurt A. "The Thetes and Democracy (A Response to Josiah Ober.)" Chapters 3-5 in Morris, Ian, et al. Democracy 2500? Questions and Challenges. Archaeological Society of America Colloquia and Conference Papers, no. 2, 1997.
|
| 11 |
Dickinson, John. "Letters of a Farmer in Pennsylvania." Letters II and III.
English Bill of Rights, 1689.
Continental Congress: Resolution and Preface of May 10-15, 1776.
Instructions of the Town of Boston to its Representatives in the General Court, May 23, 1776.
Virginia Declaration of Rights, 1776.
Declaration of Independence, 1776.
Preamble, Part the First, and introduction of Part the Second from the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 1780.
U.S. Constitution, 1787.
|
| 12 |
Social Causes of the Revolution
Paris and the Politics of Rebellion
The Monarchy Falls
War, Terror, and Resistance
"Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen." National Constituent Assembly of France, August 26, 1789.
de Gouges, Olympe. "Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Female Citizen." France, 1791.
French Constitution, 1791.
"Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Citizens."
|
| 13 |
None |
| 14-15 |
Slavery and the Haitian Revolution
Dubois, Laurent, and John D. Garrigus. "Introduction: Revolution, Emancipation, and Independence." From Slave Revolution in the Caribbean, 1789-1804. Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2006. ISBN: 9780312415013.
Haitian Declaration of Independence, 1804.
Haitian Constitution, 1805.
|
| 16-18 |
Chernyshevsky, Nikolay Gavrilovich, et al. What is to be Done? Part 2: xviii, Part 3: iv, xxix. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1989. ISBN: 9780801495472.
Marx, Karl, and Engels, Friedrich. The Communist Manifesto. The Communist League, February 21, 1848.
Herzen, Aleksandr. From The Other Shore, and The Russian People and Socialism, an Open Letter to Jules Michelet. New York, NY: G. Braziller, 1956, pp. 165-208.
Eisenstein, Sergei. Battleship Potemkin. Goskino, 1925.
Trotsky, Leon. 1905. New York, NY: Random House, 1971.
Visualizing Cultures, Units on Russo-Japanese War
|
| 19-21 |
Fitzpatrick, Sheila. The Russian Revolution. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2008, pp. 15-119. ISBN: 9780199237678.
Brooks, Jeffrey, and Georgiy Chernyavskiy. Lenin and the Making of the Soviet State. Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2006, pp. 44-60. ISBN: 9780312412661.
Gorky, Maxim. Untimely Thoughts. November 7, 10-12, 19 (20, 23-25, December 2), 1917. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1995. ISBN: 9780300060690.
Reed, John. Ten Days that Shook the World. New York, NY: Penguin Classics, 2007, pp. 654-684. ISBN: 9780141442129.
|
| 22-24 |
Spence, Jonathan D. Mao Zedong. New York, NY: Viking, 1999, pp. 1-101. ISBN: 9780670886692.
Xun, Lu. "Medicine." From Selected Stories of Lu Hsun. New York, NY: W.W. Norton, 2003. ISBN: 9780393008487.
Cheng, Pei-Kai, et al. The Search for Modern China: A Documentary Collection. New York, NY: W.W. Norton, 1999, pp. 139-149, 184-189, 197-206, 238-241, and 257-262. ISBN: 9780393973723.
|
| 25-27 |
Cheek, Timothy. Mao Zedong and China's Revolutions: A Brief History with Documents. Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2002, pp. 41-75. ISBN: 9780312256265.
Harrison, Henrietta. The Man Awakened from Dreams: One Man's Life in a North China Village, 1857-1942. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2005, pp. 51-158. ISBN: 9780804750691.
|
| 28-29 |
Hinton, Carma, Geremie Barme, and Richard Gordon. Morning Sun. Brookline, MA: Long Bow Group, 2003.
Spence, Jonathan D. Mao Zedong. New York, NY: Viking, 1999, pp. 102-178. ISBN: 9780670886692.
Cheek, Timothy. Mao Zedong and China's Revolutions: A Brief History with Documents. Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2002, pp. 123-179, and 216-219. ISBN: 9780312256265.
|
| 30 |
U.S. Constitution, Amendment XIV.
Roosevelt, Franklin D. "First Inaugural Address." Delivered to the nation, March 4, 1933.
Hayden, Tom, et al. "Port Huron Statement." Port Huron, MI: Students for a Democratic Society, June 15, 1962.
King, Martin Luther, Jr. "I Have a Dream." Delivered to a freedom rally, Washington, D.C. August 28, 1963.
Johnson, Lyndon B. "To Fulfill These Rights." Howard University Commencement address, Washington, D.C. June 4, 1965.
"NOW Statement of Purpose." Washington, D.C.: National Organization of Women, October 29, 1966.
|
| 31 |
Reagan, Ronald, et al. Reagan In His Own Hand. New York, NY: The Free Press, 2001, pp. 4-15, 18-19, 442-443, and 448-453. ISBN: 9780743219389. |
| 32 |
Reagan, Ronald, et al. Reagan In His Own Hand. New York, NY: The Free Press, 2001, pp. 224-263, 278-287, 294-295, 298-301, 350-363, and 416-419. ISBN: 9780743219389.
Greider, William. "The Education of David Stockman." Atlantic Monthly, December 1981.
Falwell, Jerry. Listen, America. New York, NY: Bantam Books, 1981, pp. 17-23. ISBN: 9780553149982.
Reagan, Ronald. "Speech Delivered to the International Business Council, September 9, 1980." Vital Speeches of the Day 46 (October 1, 1980): 738-741.
Carter, Jimmy. "The Crisis of Confidence." Delivered to the nation, July 15, 1979.
|
| 33 |
Reagan, Ronald. "Farewell Address." Delivered to the nation, January 11, 1989.
"Republican Contract with America." U.S. Republican party, 1994.
Clinton, Bill. "Third State of the Union Address." Delivered to the nation, January 24, 1995.
Reagan, Ronald. Selections from The Reagan Diaries. New York, NY: Harper-Collins, 2007. ISBN: 9780060876005.
|
| 34 |
None |
| 35 |
Reagan, Ronald. "Evil Empire." Delivered to British Parliament, June 8, 1982.
———. "Remarks at the Annual Convention of the National Association of Evangelicals." Orlando, FL, March 8, 1983.
———. Selections from The Reagan Diaries. New York, NY: Harper-Collins, 2007. ISBN: 9780060876005.
Hamilton, Lee H., and Daniel K. Inouye. "Report of the Congressional Committees Investigating the Iran-Contra Affair." House Report No. 100-433, Senate Report No. 100-216. Washington DC: United States Congress, 1987.
|
| 36-37 |
"June Fourth." Chapter 10 in Zhang, Liang, et al. The Tiananmen Papers. New York, NY: PublicAffairs, 2001. ISBN: 9781586481223.
Han, Minzhu. Cries for Democracy: Writings and Speeches from the 1989 Chinese Democracy. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2002, pp. 126-163. ISBN: 9780691008578.
"The Cold War is Over." New York Times, April 2, 1989.
Gorbachev, Mikhail. "Speech on Perestroika." 1988.
Bush, George H. W. "Towards a New World Order." Delivered to U.S. Congress, September 11, 1990.
Ash, Timothy G. Selections from The Magic Lantern: the Revolution of '89 Witnessed in Warsaw, Budapest, Berlin, and Prague. New York, NY: Random House, 1993. ISBN: 9780679740483.
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| 38 |
None |
| 39 |
None |
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