Best regards, Andrew Stewart
Begin forwarded message: > From: H-Net Staff via H-REVIEW <[email protected]> > Date: May 1, 2021 at 5:13:17 AM EDT > To: [email protected] > Cc: H-Net Staff <[email protected]> > Subject: H-Net Review [H-Socialisms]: Guyer on Murray-Miller, 'Revolutionary > Europe: Politics, Community and Culture in Transnational Context, 1775-1922' > Reply-To: [email protected] > > Gavin Murray-Miller. Revolutionary Europe: Politics, Community and > Culture in Transnational Context, 1775-1922. London Bloomsbury > Academic, 2020. 351 pp. $30.95 (paper), ISBN 978-1-350-01999-7. > > Reviewed by Benjamin M. Guyer (University of Tennessee at Martin) > Published on H-Socialisms (May, 2021) > Commissioned by Gary Roth > > Revolutionary Europe in Comparison > > "If the long nineteenth century was a century of revolution, it was > also an age of multiple revolutionary traditions that ran parallel to > or intertwined with one another at various moments" (p. 286). In this > detailed analysis, Gavin Murray-Miller shows the many ways that > diverse political events and movements intersected, drew upon one > another, and parted ways. Murray-Miller's Europe is not, however, > narrowly circumscribed, but encompasses both the American and Russian > revolutions, and touches briefly upon the Ottoman Empire and China. > Imperial Europe is immediately recognized as global in scope. > Revolutionary Europe should now be recognized as the same. > > The book is organized into two halves. It begins with the American > and French revolutions (chapter 1), although chapters 2-4 focus > primarily on the latter, including France's colonies. Chapter 5 then > rounds out the first half by looking at Napoleonic Europe, including > the Mediterranean. As Murray-Miller notes, "for the first half of the > nineteenth century, the French Revolution indisputably furnished a > model to which other revolutionaries looked" (p. 2). Consequently, > the second half of the book surveys the various forms of radical > politics that existed in Europe from mid-century through the Russian > Revolution. Chapter 6 looks at the rise of socialism, chapter 7 at > the revolution of 1848, and chapter 8 at the development of > anarchism. Chapter 9 analyzes the rise and fall of constitutionalism > in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and the final > chapter turns to the Russian Revolution. > > While some of this will seem familiar and even quite standard, a > major contribution of _Revolutionary Europe_ is Murray-Miller's > recognition that the borders of Europe were, like its intellectual > culture, fluid. A good example is the attention paid to the American > Revolution. Throughout the book, Murray-Miller attends to shifting > semantics, and in the first chapter he notes the development of new > meanings associated with "revolution." Originally synonymous with > restoration, it came to denote a fundamental break with the past, and > it was this latter meaning that was increasingly used by participants > in the American and French revolutions. Perhaps the most important > figure was Thomas Paine, who participated in both revolutions, and > who claimed that, after 1776, "we see with other eyes; we hear with > other ears; and think with other thoughts than those we formerly > used" (p. 22). When Paine crossed the Atlantic, he brought his > developing notion of revolution with him. But in ways that Paine > later dissented from, Robespierre and his associates became the first > self-consciously "revolutionary" government in history. Although not > a strictly linguistic analysis of revolutionary keywords, > Murray-Miller's attention to such detail helps readers come to better > understand the emergence of revolution as a distinct political goal > with an attendant, and sometimes equally disruptive, vocabulary. > > And yet, there is but one law of history: the law of unintended > consequences. Despite its presence at the beginning of a long, > revolutionary century, the United States soon grew wary of > revolutions elsewhere. Not only did it increasingly look askance at > France after 1789, but when Paine died on American soil, only six > people attended his funeral, despite the fact that _Common Sense_ > (1776) sold 100,000 copies. Despite the impassioned endorsement of > equality found in the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson > feared a slave revolt in Haiti, and by the early nineteenth century, > Europe's intellectual borders--which had encompassed the American > colonies--pulled far back, with the newly formed United States going > its own way. A century later, another of Europe's intellectual > borders closed. The relationship of the French and Russian > revolutions has been a topic of recurring interest and consistent > debate since the writings of François Furet. Murray-Miller agrees > that "the logics of Jacobinism and Bolshevism were comparable," but > also argues that "the Bolshevik revolution was not a continuation of > its French antecedent" (p. 266). By 1917, too much else had happened, > such as the developing concern with workers' rights and the growth of > anarchism. The Russian Revolution was influenced by intellectual and > political currents that first developed in western Europe, and > although Russia remained inextricably bound up with greater Europe > during the Great War, the Bolsheviks forced it onto new paths. By the > early twentieth century, the French Revolution had become merely one > of many revolutionary streams that flowed well beyond Europe. > > In chapter 3, Murray-Miller first broaches the topic of private > property, which became a topic of concern and contention later in the > century. In his unpublished writing about "republican institutes," > Louis Antoine Léon de Saint-Just argued that private property was > the basis of inequality. During the French Revolution, there emerged > a political and polemical _longue durée_ more familiar in works > commonly associated with communism. With the appearance of Karl Marx > and Pierre-Joseph Proudhon (chapters 6 and 7), such convictions saw > further elaboration. A critique might be posed here. Murray-Miller > does a fine job explicating the ideas of any number of figures, but > what about something more detailed and fine-grained, like the print > dissemination of, for example, Saint-Just's "republican institutes"? > It is commonly accepted that intellectual history involves studying > the history of ideas but not necessarily studying the history of the > texts in which those ideas are found. But if we really want to dig in > and study the big political thoughts of any time period, we need to > be able to explore such connections. This is not that kind of > book--and it doesn't need to be--but perhaps a future work will fill > in these gaps. > > In his concluding chapter, Murray-Miller notes the distance between > 1917 and 1789, but the fact of the matter is that the French > Revolution haunts his narrative. Socialist opponents of the > Bolsheviks compared the latter with a "Jacobin Club"; the German > Spartacus League, whom the Bolsheviks sought to arm in a failed bid > to overthrow the German government, had a newspaper entitled the_ Red > Flag_. Perhaps, after the latter half of the nineteenth century, the > French Revolution simply had become more fluid in popular perception > (or, to use a trendy term, "memory"), with select elements more > easily cherry-picked by revolutionaries in later, developing > traditions? This question is not intended as a point of criticism. > Rather, it is offered to emphasize the continued relevance of > studying the relationship between 1789 and later (successor?) > revolutions--a relationship that no one has ever teased out fully, > and which, it is likely, no one ever will. > > Before concluding, it should be noted that much about the book points > to its being ideal for undergraduates. Although organized > diachronically, many chapters cohere thematically. There are, > furthermore, narrative details that point to how this book will be a > good secondary source for students. For example, attentive to changes > in meaning, Murray-Miller underscores the increasing radicalism of > the French Revolution by noting the transformation of "Liberty, > Equality, Fraternity" into "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity, or Death" > (p. 53). Chapter 8, which covers anarchism, contains examples that > point earlier in the narrative to the Paris Commune's creation of its > own Committee of Public Safety, while also enabling students to see, > by the time they reach chapter 10, the long-term influence of > anarchist ideas. However, irrespective of intended audience, the > twenty-one illustrations and thirteen maps will be helpful to every > reader. > > _Revolutionary Europe_ persuasively vindicates its thesis that, > although the revolutions of the late eighteenth century were the font > of later revolutionary thought, nineteenth-century Europe saw > multiple revolutionary streams converge and diverge. The > international afterlife of such currents is, of course, a > twentieth-century story. > > Citation: Benjamin M. Guyer. Review of Murray-Miller, Gavin, > _Revolutionary Europe: Politics, Community and Culture in > Transnational Context, 1775-1922_. H-Socialisms, H-Net Reviews. May, > 2021. > URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=55701 > > This work is licensed under a Creative Commons > Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States > License. > > -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. 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