Death Of A Revolutionary

Based on field research in Bolivia months after Che's death in 1967, Harris (global studies, California State U.-Monterey) profiles the legendary revolutionary's life and legacy. First published in 1970. Annotation copyrighted by Book News Inc., Portland, OR

A modern, all-encompassing exploration of what happens after death combines spirituality with philosophy, history, and science, all of which guide readers toward the timeless truth that human consciousness lives on after death.

A strinking account of the impact of the French Revolution in Paris, across the French countryside, and around the globe The French Revolution has fascinated, perplexed, and inspired for more than two centuries. It was a seismic event that radically transformed France and launched shock waves across the world. In this provocative new history, Peter McPhee draws on a lifetime’s study of eighteenth-century France and Europe to create an entirely fresh account of the world’s first great modern revolution—its origins, drama, complexity, and significance. Was the Revolution a major turning point in French—even world—history, or was it instead a protracted period of violent upheaval and warfare that wrecked millions of lives? McPhee evaluates the Revolution within a genuinely global context: Europe, the Atlantic region, and even farther. He acknowledges the key revolutionary events that unfolded in Paris, yet also uncovers the varying experiences of French citizens outside the gates of the city: the provincial men and women whose daily lives were altered—or not—by developments in the capital. Enhanced with evocative stories of those who struggled to cope in unpredictable times, McPhee’s deeply researched book investigates the changing personal, social, and cultural world of the eighteenth century. His startling conclusions redefine and illuminate both the experience and the legacy of France’s transformative age of revolution. “McPhee…skillfully and with consummate clarity recounts one of the most complex events in modern history…. [This] extraordinary work is destined to be the standard account of the French Revolution for years to come.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

This fascinating study shows how terrorism as developed and practiced in Romanov Russia has, over the past century, manifested itself as the template for modern and postmodern terrorism as a universal sociocultural, psychological, and existential experience, irrespective of particular political causes, ethnic distinctions, and ideological boundaries. Arguing that Russia is the birthplace of modern terrorism, Death Orders: The Vanguard of Modern Terrorism in Revolutionary Russia uses the nation as a case study of psycho-historical patterns of worldwide terrorist activity during the past century. Key features of early-20th century Russian political extremism serve as models for terrorist experiences in other periods and regions as author Anna Geifman builds a typology of a universal phenomenon. The book shows how, in Russia and elsewhere, terrorists' objectives have degenerated from punishment of individual adversaries and attempts to intimidate political elites to indiscriminate acts of political violence. It shifts attention from ideology to practices that had been previously hidden, ignored, or rationalized, demonstrating that what terrorists say about their motives may not be what actually drives them to brutality. By looking closely at Russian precedents for the general experience of modern political violence, the book helps illuminate many obscure aspects of terrorism today.

"The first trade biography of one of the most notorious black revolutionaries in history, exploring the audacious dreams and spiritual transformations of the eccentric radical and placing him squarely within the context of his changing times"--

This fast-paced and timely book from Vijay Prashad is the best critical primer to the Middle East conflicts today, from Syria and Saudi Arabia to the chaos in Turkey. Mixing thrilling anecdotes from street-level reporting that give readers a sense of what is at stake with a bird's-eye view of the geopolitics of the region and the globe, Prashad guides us through the dramatic changes in players, politics, and economics in the Middle East over the last five years. “The Arab Spring was defeated neither in the byways of Tahrir Square nor in the souk of Aleppo,” he explains. “It was defeated roundly in the palaces of Riyadh and Ankara as well as in Washington, DC and Paris.” The heart of this book explores the turmoil in Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon—countries where ISIS emerged and is thriving. It is here that the story of the region rests. What would a post-ISIS Middle East look like? Who will listen to the grievances of the people? Can there be another future for the region that is not the return of the security state or the continuation of monarchies? Placing developments in the Middle East in the broader context of revolutionary history, The Death of the Nation tackles these critical questions.

This book is about the death of the garment industry in Nepal and the Maoist-led labour uprising that followed.

This dissertation reports the results of a sociological analysis of the narrative form and functions of revolutionary discourse. Chapter I poses two questions: How do representations of death function in political processes? How do signifiers of violent death function in the structure of revolutionary statements? Chapter II reviews relevant sociological concepts and articulates a dramatistic political-sociology of death, concepts mainly derived from Emile Durkheim, Robert Hertz, and Arnold van Gennep on death and the sacred, Max Weber on violence and politics, and Burke, Duncan, and Edelman's view of politics as symbolic action. Chapter III presents the results of a formal, narrative, and semiotic analysis of a large sample of revolutionary statements ( Saussure, Levi-Strauss, Foucault). Two symbolic complexes were clearly evident. First, revolutionaries employ a tragic narrative form, employing "the blood" of innocent victims and heroic martyrs to construct the villainy of their enemies, to provoke moral outrage, and to legitimate acts of righteous retaliation against established authority. Second, metaphors of fire, storm, explosion, and eruption are used to infuse revolutionary acts with powerful, impersonal forces. Chapter IV validates these results through an exploratory study of political meanings employing Osgood's semantic differential technique. Chapter V concludes that in revolutionary discourse, at least, revolutionary action is a form of tragic drama, an violent appeal to a 'public' audience made on behalf of 'powerless' people, a statement that one is willing to kill and die in the name of the ultimate principles of social order. The results of the semantic differential analysis show that these meanings can be studied empirically employing this technique. They also illustrate the validity and usefulness of the analytic framework, suggesting future avenues of research.