Jean-Baptiste Say's First Visit to England (1785/6)

The French classical economist Jean-Baptiste Say (1767–1832) gained fame as a political economist in the first half of the nineteenth century. In 1785, aged eighteen, he visited Britain for the first time to prepare himself for a commercial career and to learn English. Other visits followed; but, in contrast to his visits in subsequent years, during 1814/15 and 1825, little is known about his first visit and those writing about Say tend to ignore it or consider it irrelevant. By drawing on his draft autobiography and on his street plan of Croydon, the article adds more information to supplement the meagre published accounts of this visit: where and with whom he lived, for whom he worked, whom he met and what his itinerary was during the time he was in England. The key places Say mentions are London, Croydon and Fulham. While not a definitive account of the visit, it does correct factual errors, clear up confusion and clarify ambiguities. The article questions speculations about Say witnessing the Industrial Revolution and proposes that, during his visit, his interests may have lain elsewhere than only in matters of commerce and taxation.     

The rise of the new model army

In this paper the contribution of Robert R. Palmer to the now booming Atlantic history is put into perspective. It describes the main features of the political and historiographical context that inspired the writing of his book, The Age of the Democratic Revolution in the early 1950s (first volume published in 1959, second volume in 1964). It also argues that the war experience Palmer had in the historical section of the Army Ground Forces has been important in reviving the interest for the transatlantic dimension in modern history that was central in his PhD dissertation. This paper shows how the liberal-tocquevillian approach that Palmer adopted to explain the multiple revolutions that shook North America and Europe in the last quarter of the 18th century earned him the attacks of the Marxist historians. In its last part this paper makes use of private letters to claim that in the 1970s and 1980s the Italian historian Franco Venturi revived the scholarly interest in Palmer's perspective despite methodological differences between his Settecento riformatore and Palmer's analysis. Settecento riformatore and The Age of the Democratic Revolution have contributed to the interest in a transatlantic approach to 18th-century history that is now pursued under the heading of “entangled histories”.     

Structures of feeling in seventeenth-century cultural expression

ABSTRACT

As the English church splintered during the mid-seventeenth century, the resultant religious diversity overwhelmed contemporary observers, who struggled to make sense of rapidly advancing theological, political, and cultural changes. This religious chaos has, in turn, produced a similar sense of disorientation among scholars attempting to understand it, and questions of how to best categorise radical religion have generated intense controversy. One of the most important, but perhaps most misunderstood, of these emerging religious expressions were the so-called General Baptists. This article reassesses the utility and coherence of “General Baptist” as an overarching conceptual category to describe historical actors between 1609 and 1660. Historians have traditionally applied this label to any religious dissenters who both rejected paedobaptism and embraced Arminian soteriology. This standard interpretation, however, is misleading and cannot account for the historical record. As the present article demonstrates, the label “General Baptist” had no coherent, stable historical referent during the first half of the seventeenth century.     

Apocalypse and the Spirit of Revolution

Abstract

The article identifies some typical traits of apocalyptical thinking by analysing the approach of Martin Luther and Thomas Müntzer to apocalyptical texts. They both applied apocalyptical perspectives on historical events but they had conflicting views concerning its social and political consequences. The author asks whether the Reformation may be called an apocalypti-cal movement and why the Reformers are split on the question of political revolt. After studying the conflict between Müntzer and Luther in some detail, he proceeds to Engels’ analysis of Müntzer in the aftermath of the revolution in 1848, seeking an answer to the following question: How and to what extent have the biblical apocalypse and apocalyptical movements contributed to the formation of Marxist theory of revolutions?     

The theory and implementation of the People's Republic of China's revolutionary diplomacy

The foreign relations of modern China, starting from the birth of the People's Republic in 1949 until the Cultural Revolution, can be said to have had continuous ups and downs and twists and turns. Its underlying abstruse principles, while stemming from nationalism, contained for the most part the Chinese Communist Party's own revolutionary principles and individual revolutionary experiences. The Chinese Communist revolution was based on class analysis and class conflict, on struggle and ideology. This ideology determined how China viewed itself and the world; no views could be separated from the ideology of class struggle and class analysis. The leadership's adherence to this type of ideology led to the long-term instability of China's diplomacy. Though those who, like Mao Zedong, employed class revolution in order to seize political power while viewing class analysis, class struggle, and in particular the success of using class ideology in a united front policy as the magic wand of the revolution's success, were singularly able to adapt such views to China's foreign policy and diplomacy. This became the fundamental red line for China's foreign policy.     

The “Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution”: China's modern trauma

This paper examines and analyses the causes and consequences of the Cultural Revolution in China. This great twentieth century Chinese trauma cannot be detached from Mao as a person. He was its initiator and – as a charismatic leader – stood above the people and the party, and in the consciousness of the majority of the people was perceived as a great, compelling leader. This paper traces the historical setting, the causes, the process and the consequences of this tremendous political and social movement. In addition, the role of Mao and the concepts of his followers are scrutinized. Finally, the issue of whether or not the Cultural Revolution should be classified as a “revolution” is discussed.     

The Sandinista revolution and the limits of the Cold War in Latin America: the dilemma of non-intervention during the Nicaraguan crisis, 1977–78

This paper seeks to understand the construction of a broad alliance between the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN), a socialist inspired guerrilla group, and various Latin American liberal and authoritarian governments, mainly Venezuela, Costa Rica, Panama and Cuba, between 1977 and 1979. I will seek to understand the construction of this unusual partnership, as well as the deep conflicts and mistrust that existed between the parties during the revolutionary upheaval in Nicaragua. This process will be examined by analysing the way Cold War politics and Latin American regional tensions shaped the events leading to the Sandinista revolution.     

‘They’ll never understand why I’m here’: British Marxism and the Irish Revolution, 1916–1923

The Irish Revolution of 1916-1923 posed a huge challenge to Marxist organizations in Britain. Although Marx and Engels themselves had supported Irish independence, later British socialists were not able to frame a consistent response to the Irish national question. Few organizations supported the Easter Rising in 1916 and although attitudes changed markedly during the Irish War of Independence, most British Marxists, with some notable exceptions, did not seem to view the Irish struggle against British imperialism to be connected to their own struggle for revolutionary change in Britain.     

利用会党:辛亥革命的一个误区

辛亥革命时期,革命党人即已认识到利用会党是一个失误,因而才转而依靠新军。会党是当时社会成员异化的结果,广大农民对会党的诡异行为普遍持恐惧、戒备、鄙夷心理;会党的种种不法行为只能使之成为革命党人动员农民的障碍,而不是什么纽带。革命党人对会党纯粹是“利用”,根本没有想到要去改造会党,进而结成政治同盟。会党能否充当革命党联系农民的纽带,完全是后来的学者提出的理论问题,辛亥革命时期革命党人从未将发动农民问题提上议事日程。革命党人利用会党起义根本没有成功的可能,其激励民众的作用远远弥补不了给革命事业造成的损失。各省独立后,会党严重扰乱了社会秩序;民国初年,一些会党由对革命党不满发展到反对民主共和,图谋颠覆新生革命政权,很快蜕变为反动势力。     

中国社会主义现代化与市场化有机耦合的历史分析

中国社会主义市场经济模式的创新,不仅在于社会主义基本制度与市场经济的结合,而且还在于社会主义现代化与市场经济的有机耦合,这一结合是通过两者的互动逐步实现的。决定这一互动演变过程的主要因素是由世界新科技革命引起的中国现代化双重使命与传统计划经济体制的矛盾和冲突的发展,实现社会主义初级阶段现代化的双重使命始终成为贯穿着这一矛盾运动过程中的主导方面。世界新科技革命引发的当代中国先进生产力的发展要求,则是中国社会主义现代化与市场化日益有机耦合的最深刻的根源和纽带。两者的有机结合,使我国终于找到了一条既符合本国国情又顺应世界潮流的现代化建设道路。