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The phenomenon of social revolution is one with which all of us have to come
to terms in a century which has seen more and greater revolutions than any
other in recorded history. By the very nature of their impact, however, revo-
lutions are very difficult to analyze satisfactorily, surrounded as they are and
must be by a cloud of hope and disillusion, of love, hatred and fear, of their
own myths and the myths of counter-propaganda. After all, few historians
of the French Revolution who wrote before the 100th anniversary of its out-
break are now read, and the real historiography of the Russian Revolution,
in spite of some accumulation of preliminary material, is only just beginning.
The scientific study of revolutions does not mean dispassionate study. It is
fairly certain that the major achievements in this field will be 'committed' -
generally to sympathy with revolutions, if the historiography of the French
is any guide. Committed study is not necessarily mere pamphleteering, as
7 Smart, 231-32.
8 Wittgenstein,Investigations, I, 121-130.
3 "Since(the USA) was never overwhelmedby poverty, it was 'the fatal passion for sudden
riches' rather than necessity that stood in the way of the founders of the republic"(134).
4 However, Miss Arendt appears to forget her distinction when she observes later (111)
that "we also know to our sorrowthat freedomhas been betterpreservedin countrieswhere
no revolution ever broke out, no matter how outrageous the circumstancesof the powers
that be, than in those in which revolutions have been victorious." Here 'freedom'appears
6
Since the poor are, in her view, primarilydeterminedby 'necessity'ratherthan 'freedom',
i.e., by economic ratherthan political motives. Actually this is also wrong.
7 Miss Arendtis misledby the fact that at the peak of a revolutionarycrisisall organizations
discusspolitics for much of the time.
When the historian glances over the backs of the books on his shelf, he reads
titles such as The Conquistadores,A History of Fashion, France in the Middle
Ages, The Renaissance in Italy, The British Empire, The American Mind, The
Catholic Reformation, The Jews in the Diaspora, King Richard III. If I under-
stand Professor Stem correctly, each of these and other titles indicates a "proj-
ect", the smallest unit with which the historian can deal meaningfully.
Quite obviously, the project has two sides. On the one hand, it is the his-
torian's project, the product of his understanding and intention, the subject
of a study that makes sense to him. On the other hand, this subject has existed
in reality as a distinct undertaking on which one man, a nation, a class, or
group of people have focused their "public energies" over a significant period
of time. The project as reality has proceeded from the "will" of men or of a
collective body which finds itself welded together in a "system of values".
The historian, on his part, discovers those projects that his own value system
makes meaningful to him and gains acceptance for his vision among his own
contemporaries. If the match is perfect, the historian may thus bridge the past,
the present, and the future, infuse his fellow citizens with the consciousness
of a "historical reality" and help to spark the moment of "historicity" when
the private lives of the citizens are subordinated to the res publica. In this
moment they have "historical sense". Thus, Sir Edward Coke converted the
myth of the Magna Carta into the demand for a Bill of Rights; thus, the Jews